Four and five years in prison for blocking a motorway: A British court imposed record prison sentences on climate activists in July. Is this still compatible with a liberal democracy?
Louise Lancaster says she fully expected to go to prison. But not for four years. The teacher had helped plan climate protests on the M25 ring road around London in November 2022. At that time, 700,000 vehicles were stuck in traffic jams for several days and the damage was enormous.
Lancaster had arranged accommodation for activists and bought climbing equipment. In July, she and four other activists were sentenced to long prison terms – one of them even had to go to prison for five years.
Lancaster has been in prison for a few weeks now. She says that the conditions in the two-person cell are tough, that it is loud in prison and that she misses her family.
She is allowed to talk to her ex-husband Tim on the phone, he allows a conversation with the ARD Studio London.
They are serving long prison sentences: climate activists Whittaker De Abreu, Gethin, Lancaster, Shaw and Hallam (from left to right).
Postcards on the cell wall
She keeps herself afloat by reading the messages of support that are written to her, she said in an interview: “I’m lucky that many people support me and send me messages. I hang letters and postcards on the wall, we stick them to the wall with toothpaste, it’s kind of funny.”
Lancaster does not regret what she did: “No, not at all. I think it is so important to do something, to make it clear that we have a climate emergency.”
During the blockade of the M25 there was a truck accident – this was also later taken into account in the verdict.
Judge’s instructions
However, this point played no role in the verdict – the judge instructed the jury not to take into account statements and scientific evidence on climate change. In his verdict, he said that the defendants had crossed the line from “concerned activists to fanatics”.
The basis for the verdict was a previous change in the law by the then conservative government, which enabled the judiciary to take more drastic action against protesters. In the case of the climate activists, it led to a conviction for conspiracy to cause public nuisance.
During the Just Stop Oil protests in November 2022, the activists called, among other things, for a halt to oil and gas production in the North Sea. The conservative government wanted to issue new licenses at the time.
The closure of the M25 resulted in massive economic damage amounting to around one million euros. The costs of the police operation are estimated at 1.2 million euros. This is the conclusion reached by the judge in his statement of reasons for the verdict.
He also stated that numerous people had missed flights, had not been able to attend funerals, and students had missed exams. One person with cancer had missed an appointment that could only be rescheduled two months later.
Comparison with the USCivil rights movement
Graeme Hayes is a lecturer in politics at the University of Birmingham. He criticises the sentences: “Sending people to prison for harassing others, for disrupting their lives, is extreme. But sending them to prison for four or five years goes against the values of a liberal democracy.”
Peaceful protest is part of democracy, even if it is annoying. Hayes draws comparisons: the civil rights movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s also restricted many people. However, this movement, which aimed to end racial segregation, is now retrospectively classified as absolutely necessary.
The long prison sentences are also striking in comparison. After the riots in England in recent weeks, numerous rioters were convicted. One offender who set fire to a police vehicle received a two-year and five-month prison sentence. Another person was sentenced to three years in prison for beating up a paramedic and for “racist attacks.”
Harsh criticism from the UN
The United Nations Special Envoy, Michel Forst, accompanied the proceedings and said on the day the verdict was announced that this was “a dark day for peaceful environmental protests”.
His statement continued: “The ruling should alarm us all about the state of civil liberties in the United Kingdom.”
Christoph Prössl, ARD London, tagesschau, 29.08.2024 19:09