Just Stop Oil founder and four other activists sentenced to prison in UK
The sentence comes a few weeks after a number of climate protesters were arrested and investigated for disrupting key infrastructure.
Just Stop Oil activists
A British court sentenced five activists from the Just Stop Oil organization to jail time Thursday. The court found them guilty of hindering key U.K. infrastructure for organizing a demonstration that blocked a U.K. freeway for hours. Among those convicted was Roger Hallam, co-founder of Just Stop Oil.
Hallam is joined by Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22. The acts for which they were convicted date back to November 2022, when they blocked the M25 freeway for four days. Half a hundred people took part in the protest, but only five were prosecuted.
Hallam was sentenced to five years in prison, while the other four defendants were sentenced to four years each.
The prosecution alleged that the demonstrations came at a financial cost of at least 765,000 pounds (roughly $992,000), while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than 1.1 million pounds ($1.4 million).
They also allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delays, affecting more than 700,000 cars, and left the M25 "compromised" for more than 120 hours.
According to The Guardian, these sentences are the most forceful for climate activists for a "non-violent demonstration."
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