UK

Free Political Prisoners – petition ahead of action

Petition delivered to Attorney General ahead of planned civil disobedience at court

September 25, 2024

Under the new Labour government, dozens of people have been imprisoned over actions taken to fight climate breakdown, or to uphold international law and stand up for Palestine.

We reported last week that Palestine Action co-founder is facing terrorism charges next week at the Old Bailey, and how activists from that network were held under terrorism powers without access to lawyers recently (although they were not charged with terrorist offences). We’ve even seen increased raids and arrests of journalists who have been covering climate activists or the genocide in Gaza.

Two months ago, five climate activists were given four and five-year prison sentences after an extraordinary trial in which they were repeatedly held in custody for trying to tell the whole truth to the jury. At that trial, Judge Christopher Hehir said that expert evidence on the severity of the climate crisis was “inadmissible opinion and belief”, and in keeping with recent draconian changes in the law and in legal proceedings, he told the jury that the accused had no defence in law.

Judge Hehir characterised his handing down of long sentences as a ‘deterrent’ to climate protesters, drawing immediate comment from the UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst, who attended part of the trial, that this was “not acceptable in a democracy”.

At a solidarity protest outside Southwark Crown Court after the sentencing, Chris Packham and Dale Vince called for a meeting with the Attorney General to discuss the clampdown on protest in the UK. They have had no response, despite a further open letter signed by more than a thousand public figures and then the 60,000 public petition delivered recently to Baron Hermer’s office at the Ministry of Justice.

There are now almost fifty climate and arms activists held in prison on sentences or remand, and last week, climate activist Larch Maxey received a three year sentence which was hardly reported in the corporate and state press. The normalisation of the repression of protest is happening alarmingly fast, and to quote Michel Forst again, is “not acceptable in a democracy”.

On Friday this week (27th), a lunchtime mass “public exhibition” is planned outside Southwark Crown Court in solidarity with political prisoners generally, and with Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, who will be sentenced by Judge Hehir that day for their Just Stop Oil ‘Sunflowers’ action at the National Gallery two years ago. Hundreds are expected to flood the road, and the event is supported by several major activist groups including Greenpeace.

At the Labour conference this week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves responded to a protester (who was being dragged out by his neck) by saying that “This is not a party of protest”, and Keir Starmer later joked he should have been at the 2019 conference. These chilling responses are what you might expect to hear from an authoritarian and repressive regime, not a democratic government..

More info at defendourjuries.org