Five Just Stop Oil activists sentenced to prison for motorway blockade

Five activists from the prominent organisation Just Stop Oil have heard the court's verdict. They will not be pleased with it, as they have been told they must go to prison. This is a historic moment, as it is one of the harshest sentences handed down in the United Kingdom for peaceful protests.

Environmental activists have been trying for several years to draw the world's attention to the problems we must face. These include global warming, increasingly higher temperatures, droughts, and lack of access to water in more and more places. Young activists want to do everything possible to change this terrifying vision of the future. They often resort to drastic measures to do so. In England, they now find themselves having to answer for their actions in the courts.

Just Stop Oil is a group of environmental activists from the United Kingdom using civil resistance to compel the British government to halt new licences for fossil fuels and their production. They started their activities in February 2022. By April of the same year, they organised a month of disruptions at oil terminals across England, which greatly angered the public. The case in which the activists heard the verdict concerned blocking motorways, which occurred in November 2022.

On Thursday, 18 July, the court in London made a decision. The verdict was presented by Judge Christopher Hehir. He said that five activists from Just Stop Oil would have to answer for blocking motorways in prison. Behind bars will be Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, and Cressida Gethin. Presenting the verdict, the judge said that, in his view, "the activists crossed a certain line." Although they protested peacefully, they will serve their sentence in prison.

Recall, this concerns the November 2022 case. At that time, activists blocked motorways for four days. They hung banners over the roads and climbed structures over the roads. According to the judge, this was very dangerous. Roger Hallam, one of the co-founders of Just Stop Oil and another well-known group, Extinction Rebellion, received the harshest punishment. This 58-year-old activist was sentenced to five years in prison. The remaining group members were sentenced to four years of imprisonment.