Six climate protesters, including one of the founders of Just Stop Oil who was jailed for five years, have had their prison sentences shortened after the Court of Appeal said their right to freedom of expression should have been considered.
Sixteen activists involved in the climate protest group Just Stop Oil took part in a rare mass appeal in January, arguing their jail terms were excessive and breached international human rights.
The 16 sentences, which related to four separate cases, were handed down between July and September last year.
Roger Hallam, 58, founder of Extinction Rebellion and JSO, had his jail term reduced from five years to four for taking part in a Zoom call to plan a protest on the M25 motorway that brought the London ring road to a standstill over four days.
In her ruling Lady Justice Carr said Hallam’s sentence was “manifestly excessive” and said that “some attention must be paid to conscientious motivation and Articles 10 and 11” of the European Convention on Human Rights to protect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association.
His co-defendants, Cressida Gethin and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, had their sentence reduced from four years to 30 months, while Louise Lancaster and Daniel Shaw had their sentences reduced from four years to three years.
The Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of Gaie Delap, who had been jailed in a separate case for climbing on M25 gantries from 20 months to 18 months.
The appeals of 10 other protesters, including Phoebe Plummer who threw soup on Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower painting, were dismissed.
Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer who now works for Defend our Juries, welcomed the court’s acknowledgment that conscientious motivation and human rights issues needed to be considered in sentencing.
But he added that the court had “clearly upheld the principle of long prison sentences for peaceful protests”, arguing some of the sentences given were akin to the “starting points for sentences for serious sexual assault”.
While the UK has not traditionally jailed non-violent environmental activists, this has changed in recent years as climate protests expanded and became increasingly disruptive. The previous government attempted to clamp down on protests through the introduction of new laws.