August 2024: HXR members campaign against record sentences for JSO Whole Truth Five

Posted by: Hils - Posted on:

In August 2024, five Just Stop Oil climate protestors were sentenced for the longest terms ever given in this country for non-violent protest, for taking part in a Zoom call related to a protest that disrupted the M25 in London for more than four days in November 2022. During and following the trial, HXR members were involved in a number of actions to protest against these sentences

HXR member Neil Stevenson was one of eleven Defend our Juries protestors arrested on 2nd July, during the trial. They were arrested for contempt of court for peacefully holding placards outside the Southwark Crown Court. Judge Hehir (aged 58) subsequently dropped all charges and bail conditions for the group. In an extraordinary, discriminatory statement he stated that this was become some protestors were older and had disabilities and he therefore deemed them “vulnerable” and easily “manipulated”.

On Juy 18th 2024, the five defendants were convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and sentenced to between 4 and 5 years..

Large crowds of supporters, including HXR members, protested outside Southwark Court on the day of the sentencing.

During the trial Judge Hehir denied the defendants their right to explain to a jury the reasons for their action. He also stated that while the Crown Prosecution had agreed certain facts on climate collapse (including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months), this was “neither here nor there”. Following the verdict, Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement saying “Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest”. An open letter, signed by more than 1,100 lawyers, celebrities, academics and artists described the sentencing as “one of the greatest injustices in a British Court in modern history”.

Following the verdict, people involved in the Defend our Juries campaign held further sittings outside Crown courts and police stations across the UK, protesting against these extreme sentences. They held placards reading “Jurors deserve to hear the whole truth” and “Stop jailing truth tellers” . HXR members took part in some of these, including in Southwark, Hereford and Plymouth.

The aims of the Defend Our Juries campaign are:

  1. to bring to public attention the programme to undermine trial by jury in the context of those taking action to expose government dishonesty and corporate greed
  2. to raise awareness of the vital constitutional safeguard that juries can acquit a defendant as a matter of conscience, irrespective of a judge’s direction that there is no available defence (a principle also known as ‘jury equity’ or ‘jury nullification‘)
  3. to ensure that all defendants have the opportunity to explain their actions when their liberty is at stake, including by explaining their motivations and beliefs.

HXR members have taken part in previous DoJ vigils in April 2024, December 2023, September 2023 and May 2023