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.

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