Zooming off to jail for climate activism

Written By Peter Allan

Lucia Whittaker De-Abreu, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster and Daniel Shaw were given four-year sentences. Roger Hallam (far right) was given five years. They are the “whole truth five” because the jury disregarded their motives. Photo: Just Stop Oil

 

By Chris Hatch

Better scrutinize the participants list on your next Zoom call. Five climate activists in the U.K. just got multi-year jail sentences for planning a peaceful demonstration that disrupted traffic. They were convicted of “conspiring to cause a public nuisance.” The Brits have always been good at absurdist comedy — now redefined as tragedy plus a judge in a ridiculous wig.

Judge Hehir sentenced one member of the group Just Stop Oil to five years, while the others were sentenced to four. United Nations rapporteur Michel Forst was shocked: “Facing several years of imprisonment for taking part in a Zoom call — this is something I have not seen anywhere else, and it is shockingly disproportionate.”

The key piece of evidence was an organizing meeting recorded on Zoom. A reporter working for Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun snuck into the meeting and gave the recording to police.

The sentences set a new record for non-violent protest in the U.K, surpassing the three-year sentence given to another Just Stop Oil protestor who scaled the Queen Elizabeth II bridge over the Thames estuary.

READ MORE

 
Peter Allan
Previous

Jasper and the great sadness
Next

How the light gets in