UK: lengthy jail sentences for environmental protesters is ‘draconian’

Responding to the sentencing today of five environmental activists in relation to non-violent protests by Just Stop Oil on part of the M25 motorway in 2022, Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s Law and Human Rights Adviser, said:

“These lengthy jail sentences for people seeking climate justice should increase the alarm over the ongoing crackdown against peaceful protest in this country, which violates all our human rights.

“With our overcrowded prison system already described as a ‘ticking time bomb’ by the new Lord Chancellor, these jail terms are all the more indefensible.

“Today's draconian sentences and the manner in which the trial was conducted show that the hardline anti-protest approach adopted by the previous Government is being emulated by the courts.

“People should never be punished more harshly for engaging in protest than they would for an equivalent non-protest offence.

“We vehemently opposed the sections of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act that were used in this case, and we repeat our calls on the new Government to repeal them.

“The Government must protect all of our rights to protest, which are fundamental to a democratic society.”