Six Just Stop Oil supporters have been sentenced today (Thursday 1 August) by Judge Collery at Basildon Crown Court – with five being jailed. They took action climbing gantries over the M25 motorway in November 2022, demanding the UK government immediately halts all licensing and consents for new fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
Just Stop Oil: more activists jailed
Daniel Johnson, Paul Bell, Theresa Higginson, Gaie Delap, Paul Sousek, and George Simonson, pleaded guilty in April to the offence of ‘causing a public nuisance’, a statutory offence under the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Gaie Delap and Paul Sousek each received 20 month sentences, whilst Paul Bell received 22 months. George Simonson and Theresa Higginson each received two years. Daniel Johnson received a 21 month suspended sentence for 24 months and 200 hours of unpaid work.
They join Just Stop Oil’s Phoebe Plummer and Jane Touil who were imprisoned yesterday. There are currently 21 peaceful people imprisoned in the UK for demanding the UK government act on the threat of climate breakdown.
In January, Michel Forst, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders released a statement, which severely criticises the UK Government’s increasingly draconian treatment of peaceful climate action.
He made reference to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, saying:
I learned that, in the UK, peaceful protesters are being prosecuted and convicted under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, for the criminal offence of “public nuisance”, which is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
It is important to highlight that, prior to these legislative developments, it had been almost unheard of since the 1930s for members of the public to be imprisoned for peaceful protest in the UK. I am therefore seriously concerned by these regressive new laws.
In 2022, the then-prime minister Rishi Sunak boasted that this legislation had been drafted, in part, by the Policy Exchange think tank.
In 2021, it was revealed that the Policy Exchange’s US wing, the ‘American Friends of Policy Exchange’, which provides funds to the UK branch, received $30,000 (roughly £23,700) from oil and gas giant ExxonMobil in 2017.
The M25 Five speak
Speaking before sentencing today, Just Stop Oil activist Paul Sousek said:
‘No New Oil’ was the demand from Just Stop Oil right from the start. Now most political parties agree and it has become Government policy. How come we are being jailed for pushing for, what is now government policy? Kafka couldn’t make it up!
Another defendant, George Simonson, said:
I climbed a gantry on the M25 almost two years ago because I want to have a future. As a young person, I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. What is that life going to be like? How many people am I going to witness die because of our government’s inaction? I realised the people in charge are willing to kill people for fossil fuel extraction. I couldn’t just stand by and let them do this.
Gaie Delap said :
I’ve had to read the evidence of people who were stuck in our traffic, it hurts me. I’m sorry I had to do this. But we really have no other option. They didn’t listen to the scientists, they didn’t listen to their constituents, so we had to cause disruption in order to communicate the seriousness of humanity’s predicament.
In April, Just Stop Oil activist Paul Bell said:
I have taken action in a desperate attempt to protect those I love and everyone else from the alarming future that is being left for young people like me. In my PhD I spend my time studying the impacts of the climate crisis, surrounded by some of the world’s top climate scientists.
Every day I learn more about this crisis and every day my heart breaks, because I understand how vast the gap is between a safe future and the nightmare future we are heading towards. Scientists must sound the alarm, we cannot continue quietly letting the UK Government twist our words and ignore our warnings.
As a climate scientist I am hugely worried about the brutal climate disaster that is coming down the line. As a young person I feel betrayed and angry. The Government is burning our future in a dumpster fire of new oil and gas projects, they must be held to account for this monstrous act of genocide.
Just Stop Oil: relentless, regardless
In July, five Just Stop Oil supporters were handed 4-5 year prison sentences for ‘Conspiracy to cause Public Nuisance’ in relation to the M25 motorway disruption in November 2022.
These were the longest ever sentences for nonviolent direct action in the UK. During that trial, Judge Hehir denied the Just Stop Oil defendants all defences in law and barred any mention of the climate crisis, preventing them from giving testimony on their reasons for taking action and repeatedly ordered their arrests for their insistence on fulfilling their oath to tell the whole truth.
The special rapporteur’s office released a statement on 24 June detailing his views regarding the criminal prosecution of Daniel Shaw in the Just Stop Oil ‘Whole Truth Five’ trial. The statement can be read here.
Just Stop Oil said:
Until leaders act to protect us, Just Stop Oil supporters will continue to take the proportional action necessary to generate political pressure.
Just Stop Oil is working with an international network of groups to demand our governments establish a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030, as well as supporting and financing other countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition. This can be accomplished by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and seeking a negotiating mandate to establish the treaty.
Featured image via Just Stop Oil
