By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) – Five climate activists from the Just Stop Oil protest group were each jailed for at least four years on Thursday over a conspiracy to block London’s M25 motorway, marking the longest sentences ever imposed for a non-violent protest in Britain.
The five – including Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam – were charged with conspiracy to cause a public nuisance over a protest where activists disrupted traffic by climbing gantries above the motorway in November 2022.
The prosecution comes amid a wider crackdown on protest movements in Britain and across Europe.
The five pleaded not guilty but were convicted last week after a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court marked by chaotic scenes, with some defendants arrested in court for defying the judge’s rulings on their evidence.
Judge Christopher Hehir said there had been “an unprecedented level of deliberate disruption” and suggested Hallam, who he said was arrested three times, tried to “turn the trial into a piece of direct action protest”.
Protesters who held placards outside the court were also arrested for alleged contempt of court, though Hehir said the proceedings against the 11 who were arrested had been dropped.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward said the economic cost of the protests was at least 770,000 pounds ($1 million) and caused delays for thousands of people.
Hehir said that “this was a conspiracy to cause extreme and disproportionate disruption”, adding: “Each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.
“You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters about what should be done about climate change.”
Hallam, 58, was sentenced to five years in prison. The four other defendants, aged between 22 and 58, were sentenced to four years each.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
