- On January 29th and 30th, the Court of Appeal will hear 16 people involved in four different Just Stop Oil protests, who are currently in prison with a combined sentence of 41 years.
- All 16 of these people are in prison for peaceful actions for climate justice, including high-profile cases such as the Whole Truth Five and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
- Climáximo, a collective for climate justice that has experienced first-hand the repression for telling the truth, stands in solidarity with the 16 political prisoners.
On January 29th and 30th, 16 activists convicted in four different cases within the Just Stop Oil civil resistance group will be heard in a joint appeal. The four cases and sentences are:
– Whole Truth Five: Roger Hallam (5 years), Cressida Gethin (4 years), Louise Lancaster (4 years), Daniel Shaw (4 years) and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (4 years) received unprecedented prison sentences for publicising a blockade of the M25 motorway, which called for the cancellation of new oil and gas contracts.
– M25 Gantries: George Simonson (2 years), Theresa Higginson (2 years), Paul Bell (22 months), Gaie Delap (20 months) and Paul Sousek (20 months) participated in the same action, climbing onto the gantries above the M25 motorway.
– Navigator Tunnellers: Larch Maxey (3 years), Chris Bennett (18 months), Samuel Johnson (18 months) and Joe Howlett (15 months) occupied tunnels under the road leading to the Navigator oil terminal in Essex.
– Sunflowers: Phoebe Plummer (2 years old) and Anna Holland (20 months old) threw soup at the protective glass covering Van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers.
Although different, these actions have in common that they are peaceful, aim to alert the population to the climate emergency and demand that lives be saved. In this sense, the extraordinary sentences are part of a coordinated persecution of climate justice activists.
The group Defend Our Juries and the Free Political Prisoners campaign are calling for vigils in front of the court on the days of the hearing.
Climáximo, a climate justice collective that has carried out various actions and organised several campaigns and demonstrations, stands in solidarity with the activists whose crime is to insist on telling the truth.
Additional resources:
– Support mobilisations in the UK: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BsQ_R3KMaxyCrsCkLN6g8HDXHO7OLvlo_64btmCrdRM/edit?tab=t.0
– Climáximo Legal Team page: www.climaximo.pt/legal
– Just Stop Oil: www.juststopoil.org
– Defend Our Juries: https://defendourjuries.org/
