Monday, July 29, 2024

UK

Public figures oppose sentencing of ‘Whole Truth 5’ in open letter

“This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.”

Defend Our Juries have published an open letter on the sentences handed to the ‘Whole Truth Five’, with signatories including political representatives, campaigners, trade unionists, faith leaders and cultural figures. You can read the Open Letter for Whole Truth Five below:

Dear Attorney General, Richard Hermer KC,

This week has seen one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history. On Thursday 18th July, five people were given the highest sentences for nonviolent protest this country has ever seen. They were on trial for holding a zoom call, calling on others to take action to raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced: the climate and nature crises.

These sentences were handed down just days after the new government’s policy of no new licensing for oil and gas infrastructure was announced. In a world of sound, evidence-based governance, none of this needed to happen. With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity? The sentences, ranging from 4 to 5 years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault. 

The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were “neither here nor there”. These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point.

Immediately after the verdict, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement: “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” 

According to the Office for National Statistics, 74% of people in the UK want urgent action on the climate crisis. Until a couple of weeks ago that majority was blocked by a Prime Minister who used climate – an existential threat – as a wedge issue in an election he lost. This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk. The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.

The world stands at a crossroads and so does our democracy. We write in support of Chris Packham and Dale Vince’s request for an urgent meeting with you, to be recorded so it is transparent to the public, to discuss the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

Sincerely, and with love for all humanity,

Rowan Williams – Former Archbishop of Canterbury
Juliet Stevenson – Actor
Chrissie Hynde – Musician
James Hansen – Climate Scientist
Ben Okri – Writer
Sandi Toksvig – Writer
Danny Boyle – Filmmaker
Brian Eno – Musician
Sir Jonathan Pryce – Actor
Peter Gabriel – Musician
Philip Pullman – Author
Greg Searle MBE – Olympic Gold Medallist – Rowing
Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC – Solicitor
Sir David King Chair – Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG)
Annie Lennox – Singer
Mick Whelan – General Secretary of ASLEF Union
Clive Lewis MP
Peter Kalmus – NASA Climate Scientist
Jolyon Maugham KC – Director, Good Law Project
Eddie Dempsey – RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary

Legal
Dr Svitlana Romanko – Lawyer and Non Profit Director
Melinda Janki – Environmental Lawyer
Lord John Hendy KC – Barrister
Michael Mansfield KC – Barrister
Prof Bill Bowring – Emeritus Professor, Barrister
Liz Davies KC – Barrister
Gregg Taylor KC – Former Barrister
Guy Linley-Adams – Solicitor, Lecturer
Renata Avila – Human Rights Lawyer
Christina Eckes – Professor of European Law

Cultural
Chris Martin – Musician
Frankie Boyle – Comedian
Steve Coogan – Actor 
Jarvis Cocker – Songwriter
Tracey Emin DBE – Artist
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – Chef, Broadcaster
Es Devlin – Artist and Stage Designer
Adam McKay – Filmmaker
Toby Jones – Actor
Adam Buxton – Podcaster
Stewart Lee – Comedian
Matilda Swinton – Actress
Lynne Ramsay – Filmmaker

Political
Yanis Varoufakis – Economist
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Lord Cashman CBE Peer of the Realm
Scott Ainslie – Actor and Politician
Prem Sikka – Member of the House of Lords
Carla Denyer – MP
Stella Assange
Iqbal Mohamed MP 
Len McCluskey – Former General Secretary of UNITE
Maryam Eslamdoust – General Secretary of The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association

Academics
Prof Jeff Waage OBE – Ecologist
Ann Pettifor – Economist on Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission
Terry Eagleton – Writer and Public Intellectual
Professor Jason Hickel – Author
Professor David Whyte – Poet
Professor Mike Berners-Lee – Author and Business consultant
Dr Feja Lesniewska – Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Transitions and Environmental Law
Professor Steve Keen – Economist
Kate Raworth Ecological economist
Professor Mark Maslin – Earth System Science UCL

Athletes
Etiene Stott MBE – Olympic gold medalist, London 2012
Lewis Pugh – OIG UN Patron of the Oceans
James Brown – Retired Paralympian
Laura Baldwin – Olympic Sailor
Damian Hall – Author, GB athlete

Faith Leaders
John Perumbalath – Bishop of Liverpool
Rev Vanessa Elston – Diocese of Southwark
Prof. Carmody Grey – Philosopher and Theologian
Rev Mark Hutchinson 
Rev Matthew F Smith 
Rabbi Jeffrey Newman 
Rev Andrew Allen – Academic
Elizabeth Slade – Chief Officer, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
Rev’d Hilary Bond – Church of England priest
Anne Litherland – Laudato si animator

Climate Experts
Professor James Dyke – Earth Systems Science at the University of Exeter
Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt CBE – Writer
George Monbiot – Journalist
Bill McGuire – Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL
Dr. Genevieve Guenther – Author
Prof. Kevin Anderson – Energy and Climate Change Manchester University
Bill McKibben – Writer
Judy Lin Wong CBE – Honorary President, Black Environment Network
Farhana Yamin – Climate Lawyer
Martin Spray CBE – WWT Chief Executive
Mark Lynas – Author
Luisa Neubauer – Politician and Activist


Campaigners
Helen Pankhurst – Women’s Rights Scholar
Peter Tatchell – Human Rights Activist
Tzeporah Berman – Founder Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Nick Dearden – Director of Global Justice Now
Asad Rehman – Executive Director War on Want
Joshua Wright – Forest Defense Activist
Dr Gail Bradbrook – XR cofounder and NGO consultant
Sandrine Dixson – Decleve Co President, The Club of Rome
Areeba Hamid & Will McCallum – Co-Executive Directors, Greenpeace UK
Jo Verrent – Director of Unlimited, Disability Arts Commissioning Charity

You can read the full list of 1200 public figures who’ve supported the public letter here.


  • This letter was originally published by Defend Our Juries.
  • You can help get the petition against these sentences to over 50,000 signatures here, and join the demonstration in Parliament Square from 2-4pm on Saturday 3rd August 2024.

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