Jail terms for UK climate activists stoke protest rights fears

Campaigners have voiced fears for the right to peaceful protest in the UK after five climate activists received hefty prison sentences for planning disruption.

Four Just Stop Oil (JSO) members were jailed for four years each on Thursday, while the group’s co-founder Roger Hallam received five years.

They were accused of plotting to block the M25 motorway around London.

Hallam’s five years is believed to be the longest sentence for non-violent protest in the UK, and comes with mounting concern about a wider crackdown on protest rights.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Environmental Defenders, Michel Forst, called it “a dark day for peaceful environmental protest and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms” in the UK.

“This sentence should shock the conscience of any member of the public,” he added in a statement. “It should also put all of us on high alert on the state of civic rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom.”

Sociologist Graeme Hayes, who specialises in environmental politics, social movements and direct action, said the sentences were “clearly excessive and disproportionate”.

But he said they were the “logical outcome of the authoritarian turn in Britain over the last five years”.

The JSO protesters were convicted for conspiring to cause public nuisance.

Legislation introduced in 2022 made “public nuisance” punishable by up to 10 years in prison and gave the government wider powers to define what is considered “disruption”.

A Public Order Act passed just days before the coronation of King Charles III in May last year created new protest offences and increased police powers to search protesters who they believe will cause “serious disruption”.