MORE THAN 50 activists plan to march from HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, to the Royal Courts of Justice, Westminster, where 16 climate activists will appeal against their draconian prison sentences tomorrow [today].
The Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists were jailed for a combined 41 years for taking non-violent action to call for an end to reliance on fossil fuels.
The sentences include five years imposed on JSO founder Roger Hallam for organising a protest over Zoom, and two years given to Phoebe Plummer after she threw soup on glass covering Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Last year, then UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders Michel Forst condemned the use of legislation such as the Public Order Act and civil injunctions to criminalise peaceful protests.
When Mr Hallam and four others were jailed for organising a protest on the M25, Mr Forst described it as a dark day for “anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms” in Britain.
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Steve Scott-Robson a 63-year-old father and educator joining the walk said: “I applaud loudly the spirit of these 16 activists, and I am grateful to them for their brave and defiant actions.
“It is an utter abomination that the country that has benefited from industrialisation first — and therefore longest — is the country in Europe that has the harshest legislation aimed at environmental activists.”
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