- author, Bethan Bell
- role, BBC News
More than 1,200 artists, athletes and academics have condemned the “injustice” of the sentences handed down to five “anti-oil activists” for their non-violent protest.
In a letter to the Attorney General, they called for an urgent meeting to discuss the “imprisonment of truth tellers and silencing in court.”
Roger Hallam, 58, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit public nuisance and sentenced to five years in prison, while the other four were each given four-year sentences.
This relates to protests that disrupted London's M25 for more than four days in November 2022.
Image source, Essex Police
The four people who received four-year prison sentences are:
- Cressida Gethin, 22
- Daniel Shaw, 38
- Lucia Whitaker de Abreu, 35
- Louise Lancaster, 58
“Necessary Services”
The prison sentence is believed to be the longest ever handed down for peaceful protest in the UK, surpassing the sentences given to two Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford Crossing in October 2022.
The letter was signed by prominent figures including former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, musicians Chris Martin and Annie Lennox, and author Philip Pullman.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called the sentence “deeply disturbing.”
The signatories argue that non-violent protesters are “playing a necessary role” by “alerting the public to the grave danger we all face.”
At the trial at Southwark Crown Court, the prosecution alleged that protesters caused more than 50,000 hours of delays, affected over 700,000 vehicles and left the M25 in a “dangerous” condition for more than 120 hours.
The court was also told the protests had caused financial loss of at least £765,000, with losses to the Metropolitan police amounting to more than £1.1 million.
“Insanity”
In an open letter they described the prison sentences handed down to the “Whole Truth Five” activists as “one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history”.
“With prisons at capacity and the new government urgently tackling the issue, how can these sentences be viewed as anything other than insanity?”
The issue of destructive climate action, such as closing the M25, and the legal consequences for those involved, is a divisive issue.
A poll conducted by the Social Change Lab, a group that describes itself as conducting and disseminating research on social movements, found that 61% of respondents thought the Whole Truth Five's sentences were too harsh, while 27% felt the sentences were about appropriate and 12% said they were too light.
