Just Stop Oil

Evidence suggests 77-year-old climate activist was recalled to prison over ‘fabricated reports’, family say

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/evidence-suggests-77-year-old-climate-activist-recalled-prison-over-fabricated-reports

Retired teacher Gaie Delap, of Bristol, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London

THE family of a 77-year-old climate activist who has been recalled to prison after officers failed to fit a suitable tag have accused the electronic monitoring service (EMS) of completely misrepresenting the incident.

Just Stop Oil (JSO) activist Gaie Delap was sentenced to 20 months after taking part in peaceful action on the M25 in 2022 demanding an end to all new oil and gas licences.

Ms Delap was released in November on a home detention curfew, requiring her to wear an electronic tag.

But Serco, the company operating EMS, was unable to attach the tag to her ankle due to previous deep vein thrombosis.

JSO says that EMS was unable to alternatively fit a tag to her wrist as they did not have one small enough.

As a result, the grandmother was arrested at her home in late December and recalled to prison.

Ms Delap’s family have now called for an investigation after discovering that EMS claimed in the activist’s recall papers that she “refused” to allow equipment to be installed.

Her brother Mick Delap said: “Reading this, Gaie is speechless and angry — they are completely misrepresenting what happened.

“She has never, ever refused a tag. She feels like she is caught up in a web of deceit, and is powerless to tell the truth.

“It now seems to us that Gaie has been recalled to prison due to fabricated reports. This raises serious issues about Serco EMS conduct. At best it is manifest incompetence. At worst it is mendacious and borders on the fraudulent.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/evidence-suggests-77-year-old-climate-activist-recalled-prison-over-fabricated-reports

Continue ReadingEvidence suggests 77-year-old climate activist was recalled to prison over ‘fabricated reports’, family say

Record number of protesters will be in UK prisons this Christmas

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/20/record-number-of-protesters-will-be-in-uk-prisons-this-christmas

A Just Stop Oil protester on the M25 in 2022. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Forty people, aged 22 to 58, incarcerated for direct actions on climate and Gaza actions amid crackdown on dissent

A record number of people who have taken part in protests will be in prison in the UK this Christmas, raising concern about the ongoing crackdown on dissent.

Forty people, aged from 22 to 58, will be behind bars on Christmas Day for planning or taking part in a variety of protests relating to the climate crisis or the war in Gaza. Several of them are facing years in prison after courts handed down the most severe sentences on record for direct action protests.

Jodie Beck, a policy and campaigns officer at the civil rights group Liberty, said the number of protesters in prison and the severity of their sentences was “a damning reflection of the state of democracy” in the country.

“We should all be able to stand up for what we believe in without fear of lengthy prison sentences. Continuing to prosecute people for exercising their right to protest will only serve to exacerbate the crisis in our criminal justice system alongside stopping people from making their voices heard,” Beck said.

Nineteen people are in prison – 10 of them on remand – after taking part in climate protests with the campaign group Just Stop Oil. They range from five people who received multi-year sentences after being found guilty of conspiring to cause gridlock on the M25, to two young people jailed for more than 18 months for throwing tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting in the National Gallery in London.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/20/record-number-of-protesters-will-be-in-uk-prisons-this-christmas

Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Continue ReadingRecord number of protesters will be in UK prisons this Christmas

Campaign groups to intervene in M25 protesters’ appeals

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaign-groups-intervene-m25-protesters-appeals

Activists from Just Stop Oil hanging a banner above the M25

ENVIRONMENTAL groups Friends of the Earth (FoE) and Greenpeace UK will intervene in appeals challenging sentences given to climate protesters who blocked the M25.

Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were jailed in July.

Mr Hallam, co-founder of Just Stop Oil, was sentenced to five years while the other four protesters received four-year sentences for disrupting traffic by climbing motorway gantries in November 2022.

The appeal will be heard on January 29-30, 2025, alongside cases involving 16 other Just Stop Oil activists.

FoE argues the sentences breach human rights laws and is calling for “proportionate” penalties for protesters.

The group’s senior lawyer, Katie de Kauwe, said the sentences “show the chilling effect of the previous government’s anti-protest laws in stifling our democracy and allowing the government of the day to curb dissent.”

She said: “In what functioning democracy can it be right for those peacefully raising the alarm about the climate crisis to receive longer jail sentences than people who participated in racially motivated violence this summer, and deliberately targeted migrants, refugees and Muslim communities?

“Peaceful protesters shouldn’t be locked up, period.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaign-groups-intervene-m25-protesters-appeals

Continue ReadingCampaign groups to intervene in M25 protesters’ appeals

Carollers sing ‘Away in a Police Car’ outside Home Office and demand repeal of anti-protest laws

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/carollers-sing-away-police-car-outside-home-office-and-demand-repeal-anti-protest-laws

Protesters sing Christmas carols outside the Home Office, December 12, 2024 Photo: Talia Woodin @taltakingpic

“AWAY in a police car” echoed outside the Home Office on Wednesday as campaigners belted out renditions of Christmas carols, calling for the government to repeal draconian anti-protest laws.

Dressed in Christmas jumpers and Santa hats, carollers from Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace and Liberty sang festive songs including The Twelve Days of Protest and Silent Protest.

They then handed in a petition to the Home Office, calling on it to scrap protest restrictions introduced by previous governments, alongside a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper demanding an urgent meeting to discuss the state of protest rights in Britain.

A series of repressive laws have made the right to protest increasingly hard to exercise.

They include the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which allows police to ban or restrict “unacceptable” protests, and the Public Order Act 2023 which criminalised protesters “locking on” and fastening themselves to each other or objects.

Punitive jail terms handed out since their enactment include one Just Stop Oil protester being sentenced to six months for slow marching on a road for 30 minutes, while five others from the group received a combined 21 years for co-ordinating a non-violent action over Zoom.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/carollers-sing-away-police-car-outside-home-office-and-demand-repeal-anti-protest-laws

Continue ReadingCarollers sing ‘Away in a Police Car’ outside Home Office and demand repeal of anti-protest laws

Climate activists serving combined 41 years of jail time granted mass appeal hearing

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/climate-activists-serving-combined-41-years-jail-time-granted-mass-appeal-hearing Many articles from the Morning Star today

The Whole Truth Five (from left to right) Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw and Roger Hallam Photo: Just Stop Oil

SIXTEEN non-violent Just Stop Oil protesters handed draconian sentences since July have been granted an extraordinary mass hearing before the Court of Appeal next year, it was announced on Saturday.

The hearing on January 29 and 30 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London will examine four separate cases involving activists from the group. Key points of contention will include whether conscientious motivation should be considered a mitigating factor.

The outcome is anticipated to be a defining moment for protest rights in Britain.

The 16 include the “Whole Truth Five,” who organised a protest on the M25 calling for a halt to new oil and gas licences. Roger Hallam, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw, and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu received a combined total of 21 years for their action.

At the time, UN special rapporteur Michel Forst said the verdict marked a dark day for “anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms” in Britain.

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Spokesman for the Free Political Prisoners campaign Lex Korte said: “A subset of judges have responded all too eagerly to the call from the disgraced Lord Walney, the arms and oil industry lobbyist, to jail peaceful climate campaigners for longer than if they’d committed serious crimes of sexual violence.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/climate-activists-serving-combined-41-years-jail-time-granted-mass-appeal-hearing Many articles from the Morning Star today

Continue ReadingClimate activists serving combined 41 years of jail time granted mass appeal hearing