Another authoritarian farce from the UK justice (sic) system
Posted by Ian M on July 14, 2024, 6:51 pm
The 5 M25 protesters from Just Stop Oil had their day in court and were dragged out by police multiple times for refusing to be gagged by the judge and discussing the climate crisis and their motivations to the jury. Good for them. I note the graun is suddenly capable of describing specific reasons for why a judicial process is a complete travesty....
Contempt, gagging and UN intervention: inside the UK’s wildest climate trial
Prosecution of five Just Stop Oil activists over M25 protest led to chaotic scenes in court and concerns about ‘judicial persecution’ Damien Gayle Fri 12 Jul 2024 10.00 EDT
As part of his role as UN rapporteur for environmental defenders, Michel Forst has been watching proceedings against climate activists at courts across Europe.
But he may not have seen anything like what unfolded at Southwark crown court in London over the past two and a half weeks, where five Just Stop Oil activists were convicted for conspiring to cause gridlock on the M25 in November 2022.
On the days Forst visited, he witnessed three of the five defendants being arrested in court and dragged to the cells, protesters outside attempting to warn jurors they were not hearing the full case and a judge desperately trying to maintain control over his courtroom.
The judge, Christopher Hehir, had ruled that information about climate breakdown could not be entered into evidence, and could only be referred to by defendants briefly as the “political and philosophical beliefs” that motivated them – which he would tell the jury were in any case irrelevant to their deliberations.
But the defendants had other plans. They sought to turn Hehir’s court into a “site of civil resistance”, causing as much disruption as necessary to ensure that if the jury could not see their evidence on climate breakdown, then the jurors could at least be in no doubt it was being kept from them.
By the time the jury retired to consider a verdict, police had been called into court no fewer than seven times, four of the five defendants had been remanded to prison and 11 others were facing contempt of court proceedings for protests outside the courtroom.
Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were standing trial on charges of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, accused of being the “queen bees” behind a series of protests on the M25.
Under the banner of the climate campaign group Just Stop Oil, already notorious for its road-blocking protests, they were said to have recruited 64 people to climb gantries over London’s orbital motorway, forcing police to stop traffic on four consecutive days.
The prosecution said the disruption amounted to £750,000 of economic damage and a £1m policing cost, with about 709,000 drivers affected. The judge warned the defendants they faced a harsh penalty if convicted.
Two men who blocked the Queen Elizabeth II bridge the month before the gantry protests were jailed for two years each, sentences Hehir said he would take as a reference point.
But why was Forst there in the first place? What can only now be reported is that he had made an extraordinary intervention on the eve of the trial, issuing a public statement criticising the treatment of Shaw in particular. As he awaited trial, Shaw had already spent more than 100 days on remand, been forced to wear an ankle tag, made subject to a strict curfew and banned from meeting his co-defendants or attending environmental demonstrations. Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway. A protester who climbed an M25 gantry in November 2022. Photograph: Just Stop Oil/PA
Forst’s intervention came amid increasing alarm at tightening restrictions on protest rights. In the past two years, the UK government has passed two wide-ranging laws targeting direct actions by climate activists, creating a host of new offences with potentially stiff penalties. At the same time, with juries having repeatedly acquitted defendants prosecuted for climate and other protests on the basis that their cause was just, the attorney general had applied to the court of appeal to limit the kinds of defences available in such cases.
Forst had already written to the UK government to express concern over these developments, but issued his latest statement after getting no response. “I fail to see how exposing Mr Shaw to a multiyear prison sentence for being on a Zoom call that discussed the organisation of a peaceful environmental protest is either reasonable or proportionate, nor pursues a legitimate public purpose,” Forst wrote. “Rather, I am gravely concerned that a sanction of this magnitude is purely punitive and repressive.”
That Zoom call was a key piece of evidence for the prosecution case. Made just days before the M25 protests began, the call was, the prosecution said, part of efforts to recruit volunteers to take part in the direct actions. Unbeknown to those taking part, it had been infiltrated by a Sun journalist who recorded it and passed it to the Metropolitan police.
On the face of it, the prosecution evidence seemed damning – and was mostly uncontested by the defendants. But it was only after prosecutors completed their case that events in court began to get really interesting.
The defendants had wanted to mount a defence of reasonable excuse. They proposed inviting expert witnesses such as the geophysicist Bill McGuire, who has written extensively on the implications of climate breakdown, to explain why the urgency of the unfolding environmental crisis warranted their actions. Such defence strategies have worked in some previous cases, with defendants acquitted in the face of apparently conclusive evidence.
But Hehir ruled that the defendants in this case could not present any evidence about the climate to the court, save for the brief statements about their philosophical and political beliefs that ultimately would have no bearing on the verdict.
It was in this context that, as the second week of the trial began, protesters began appearing each morning outside the court, displaying placards saying: “Jurors deserve to hear the whole truth.”
Of the defendants, only Hallam disputed the role the prosecution claimed he played in the conspiracy. He told the court he had merely been asked to “give the case for civil disobedience”.
“I wish to say on oath that I was not involved in this campaign,” he said. However, he went on to argue that even if the jury determined he had played a role in the conspiracy, they should find him and his co-defendants not guilty on the basis they had a reasonable excuse or justification for the actions they took.
In a three-hour address, punctuated by interruptions from an irritated Hehir, Hallam lectured the jury on his interpretation of the law, and why, he claimed, it showed the activists had an excuse for blocking the M25 to raise the alarm about climate breakdown.
Hehir told jurors Hallam’s legal analysis was peppered with mistakes. He repeatedly sent the jury out to admonish Hallam for referencing climate science he had ruled irrelevant to the case. But the judge proved more patient than the defendant seemed to expect. In the end, Hallam told jurors: “I apologise to you if I’m a little bit incoherent, I didn’t actually expect that I was going to get this far.”
He did not get much further. The following morning, the judge brought Hallam’s evidence to an end and, after the defendant refused to answer a cross-examination and then refused to leave the witness box, insisting he was not finished, Hehir called police into the court and had him arrested for contempt.
“Democracy in action, guys! Democracy in action,” Hallam said to watching reporters, as he was dragged into the dock, then down to the cells.
It was the first of many such scenes. Later that same day, Shaw was arrested and taken to the cells in almost identical circumstances, and Hehir sent jurors – who had not witnessed the arrests – home early. “I have never had to order a defendant to be arrested in a courtroom before and I’m very sad to have had to do that not once, but twice today,” the judge said.
On the face of it, Hallam and Shaw’s theatrics looked self-defeating. But the defendants believed they contributed to a victory. The following morning, on agreement, four “facts not in dispute” relating to the climate crisis were read into the court record by Fiona Robertson, second barrister for the crown. They were: that the climate crisis was “an existential threat to humanity”; that global heating above 1.5C would have catastrophic consequences; that in the past 12 months average global temperatures were 1.6C above the pre-industrial baseline; and that in October 2022 the government had opened a new round of oil and gas licensing.
It was a development the defendants and their supporters said amounted to the prosecution conceding the climate crisis was “an existential threat to humanity” – and one that they were to refer to throughout the remaining days of the trial.
Forst was in court to see this. He also witnessed much else. Hallam, bailed the previous day, was dragged out of court again after he began speaking straight to jurors during Lancaster’s evidence. Shortly after, Shaw directly challenged the judge, asking: “Why are you not trying the people causing this crisis?” He too was dragged out. Lancaster was next, for refusing to leave the witness box, and that night, all three were remanded to prison. Gethin had to wait but was also arrested for contempt on both Monday and Tuesday. What restrictions are placed on defendants in climate protest trials?
By the end of the trial, Whittaker De Abreu, the only one who had not represented herself, was the only defendant left in court.
As a punishment for their “persistent disruption”, Hehir slashed the time given to each defendant from one hour to 20 minutes. He further prohibited any mention of the climate crisis, the legal defences he had disallowed or the principle of jury equity – the idea that jurors can acquit based on their conscience.
As Hallam, Shaw, Lancaster and Gethin gave their speeches from behind the reinforced glass screen of the dock, they each proceeded to flout Hehir’s prohibitions, arguing they had been denied a right to a fair trial.
Hallam told jurors: “It’s blindingly obvious to us here first that you have not been given all the evidence you need. You cannot be sure of our guilt if you are not sure that you have not been given the evidence … we have received no good reason why we are not allowed to tell you what is blindingly obvious, namely what I’m not allowed to speak about. If you are not allowed to hear the blindingly obvious then it’s not a fair trial is it?”
It took just a day’s deliberations for the jury to unanimously find them guilty.
Given the recent history of UK climate protest trials, in which defendants have been sentenced to jail for merely mentioning the words “climate change”, and notwithstanding the dramatic arrests in court, Forst said he was surprised the judge gave them an opportunity to mention climate breakdown at all.
“But the little latitude they had to mention climate change was in the meantime emptied of its very meaning by the fact that, overall, the jury was told to ignore most of it,” he added.
Forst also said he was dismayed by the judge’s decision to refuse the defendants a chance to present more fully their evidence about climate breakdown. “That’s precisely one of the serious concerns I have about what is happening in some courts in the UK. Defendants should be allowed to explain why they have decided to use non-conventional but yet peaceful forms of action, like civil disobedience, when they engage in environmental protest,” he said.
It is not just in the UK that climate defenders are facing persecution, according to Forst, but the problems in this country are particularly acute. Protesters in countries such as France and Germany also faced political opposition – and in some cases, police brutality – but when it came to judicial persecution, the UK was unique, he said.
“[Elsewhere] you see environmental activists who block roads or sporting events being sentenced to a fine, or even sometimes suspended prison sentences for instance,” Forst said. “However, while I don’t have a full picture of what’s happening in every country, the UK is a nightmare for climate activists from this point of view, in the sense that the sentences imposed in other countries are neither that harsh, nor that widespread.
“Facing several years of imprisonment for taking part in a Zoom call – this is something I have not seen anywhere else and it is shockingly disproportionate.”
The nightmare is just beginning for Hallam, Shaw, Lancaster, Gethin and Whittaker De Abreu, who have all been remanded to prison before sentencing next Thursday. Hehir has indicated that they face long sentences.Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
Roger was imprisoned this week for telling the truth in a British court. He refused to leave the witness box after the judge ordered him to stop giving evidence of climate breakdown. The following is his statement. Jailed for Telling The Truth
I have been imprisoned, along with three of my co-defendants, by Judge Christopher Hehir.
As you may know, I have been in court charged with ‘conspiring to cause a public nuisance’ for making a speech on civil disobedience before Just Stop Oil blocked the M25. During the trial, I stuck to my oath to tell the jury “the whole truth”. It is their fundamental right to hear all the evidence.
In response, the judge stated that “whether or not we are facing the end of the world is neither here nor there" and that humanity “coming to a fiery end” was irrelevant. He then ordered me to be forcibly dragged out of the court by the police and remanded to prison. This is the indignity of a British courtroom.
The corruption of our judges by the carbon state has crossed a line in the sand. This is an opportunity, and an obligation, to act. We only have a limited amount of time to halt the unimaginable horrors of climate and social collapse - and to save our democracy.
I call on people - you reading this - to come to the court with placards to make clear the jury has a right to the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Come to Potter’s Field Park, London at 4.30pm, Thursday 18th for the sentencing with your sign that says “Juries have a right to hear the whole truth” and “Stop Jailing Truth Tellers”. My friend Robin has made a Telegram/Whatsapp channel for me, which you can join for updates.
If you can’t make it, please donate towards the substantial court costs and share this message to promote truth tellers everywhere. Roger and his co-defendants.
Act in solidarity not just with us, but with the billions of people whose lives and livelihoods will be destroyed unless we stop this greatest of all crimes.
In truth, there is simply nothing more important than to stop this. Is there?
Thanks,
Roger Donate
Roger and his co-defendants were arrested 9 times and remanded to prison 7 times during the hearing for defying the judge. After this ordeal, the five were found guilty by the jury and the judge has promised they will be in a prison "for a long, long time". Read Damien Gayle's excellent article in the Guardian for a blow by blow account of the sham trial. Contempt, gagging and UN intervention: inside the UK’s wildest climate trial
Prosecution of five Just Stop Oil activists over M25 protest led to chaotic scenes in court and concerns about ‘judicial persecution’ The GuardianDamien Gayle
Listen to co-defendant Lou break down the case in a minute.
This a distressing and heartwrenching time for all of us who support and work with Roger. Whilst we must honour those feelings, he would want us to press forth, to act and organise. This is our duty to our friend. Thank you for reading. - Robin
If you'd like to send Roger a message of support, you can email a note through to him in prison by sending it to rogerremanded@gmail.com. Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
UN report on the treatment of Daniel Shaw, sentenced/abused for attending a Zoom call
Michel Forst UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention
Statement regarding the criminal prosecution of Mr. Daniel Shaw for his involvement in peaceful environmental protest in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Ref: ACSR/C/2024/26 (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
On 12 March 2024, I sent a letter of allegation to the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (“United Kingdom”) requesting its response to the complaint received under my mandate regarding the alleged persecution, penalization and harassment of Mr. Daniel Shaw (complaint reference ACSR/C/2024/26) for his involvement in peaceful environmental protest.
In accordance with my complaints procedure, the United Kingdom had sixty days, i.e. until 11 May 2024, to prepare its response to my letter. The United Kingdom failed to provide a substantive response to my letter by that deadline, nor has it done so since.
I have in the meantime received further concerning information about the situation of Mr. Shaw that prompts me to issue the present statement.
At the outset, I underline that the United Kingdom, as a Party to the Aarhus Convention, has a binding obligation under article 3 (8) of the Aarhus Convention to “ensure that persons exercising their rights in conformity with the Convention are not penalized, persecuted or harassed in any way for their involvement”. As the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee has made clear, this includes persons engaging in peaceful environmental protest.1 Penalization of members of the public seeking to exercise their right to engage in peaceful environmental protest violates article 3 (8) of the Convention. The information I have received to date regarding the situation of Mr. Shaw indicates that the United Kingdom may be acting in violation of its obligations under article 3 (8) of the Aarhus Convention.
The United Kingdom must ensure that any sanction imposed on Mr. Shaw for his involvement in peaceful environmental protest is reasonable, proportionate and serves a legitimate public purpose
In my letter of 12 March 2024 to the government of the United Kingdom, I expressed my serious concern about the arrest, very lengthy remand in prison and harsh bail conditions of Mr. Shaw as a result of his involvement in peaceful environmental protest to call for urgent government action concerning the climate crisis (ACSR/C/2024/26). Mr. Shaw has been charged with “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance” under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and the Courts Act 2022 for his participation in a Zoom call that discussed with the other attendees of the call the climate crisis and a proposed peaceful environmental protest. Following his arrest, Mr. Shaw spent 113 days in prison on remand. When eventually released from remand, he has been subject to a range of highly draconian bail conditions including, among others, a 10pm-7am curfew, an electronic monitoring tag, a requirement to sleep at his home address every night, a prohibition from having either direct or indirect contact with any of his co-defendants and a prohibition from participating in any climate change demonstration. Mr. Shaw has been subject to most of these severe restrictions on his personal life for nearly one and a half years.
I have now received new information regarding the imminent criminal trial of Mr. Shaw that I consider deeply concerning. With Mr. Shaw’s criminal trial set to start today, on 24 June 2024, I have been informed that Mr. Shaw may reasonably expect to face a prison sentence of up to two years (or more) for, in essence, his participation in a Zoom call to discuss a proposed peaceful environmental protest. The imposition of such sanction is not only appalling but may also violate the United Kingdom’s obligations under international law.
While, under international law, members of the public who, in the course of exercising their right to engage in peaceful environmental protest, commit acts which contravene domestic law can be prosecuted or sanctioned for those contraventions, any such prosecution or resulting sanction must be “reasonable, proportional and pursue a legitimate public purpose”. 2 If not, the prosecution or sanction may amount to persecution, penalization or harassment under article 3 (8) of the Aarhus Convention.
I fail to see how exposing Mr. Shaw to a multi-year prison sentence for being on a Zoom call that discussed the organization of a peaceful environmental protest is either reasonable or proportionate nor pursues a legitimate public purpose. Rather, I am gravely concerned that a sanction of this magnitude is purely punitive and repressive.
The sanction faced by Mr. Shaw should be a matter of concern for any member of the public in the United Kingdom as well as the international community as a whole. The right to peaceful protest is a basic human right and an essential part of a healthy democracy. When, in the midst of a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, a peaceful environmental protester like Mr. Shaw faces an extended prison sentence in the United Kingdom, alarm bells should go off not just across the United Kingdom, but across the international community also. It signals that fundamental pillars of a democratic society are right now in grave peril in the United Kingdom.
In the light of the United Kingdom’s failure to provide a substantive response to my letter of 12 March 2024 or to take any apparent steps to address the allegations I put before it in relation to Mr. Shaw, I have decided to issue the present statement. I urge the United Kingdom to ensure that any sanction imposed on Mr. Shaw for his involvement in the organization of peaceful environmental protest is reasonable, proportional and pursues a legitimate public purpose, in compliance with the United Kingdom’s international obligations.
In light of the serious concerns I have about the treatment of Mr. Shaw, I have also decided to personally attend, as an observer, parts of the trial of Mr. Shaw and his co-defendants, at Southwark Crown Court.
* * *
To conclude, it is both concerning and disappointing that the United Kingdom, to date, has neither provided a substantive response to my letter of 12 March 2024 nor appears to have taken any steps to halt its alleged persecution, penalization or harassment of Mr. Shaw. To the contrary, based on the new information detailed above, the alleged penalization of Mr. Shaw appears significantly heightened. While I remain available to engage in a constructive dialogue with the government of the United Kingdom in order to ensure that members of the public seeking to protect the environment are not subject to persecution, penalization or harassment, I remind the United Kingdom that, should I fail to see effective, immediate steps by the government of the United Kingdom to halt its alleged persecution, penalization or harassment of Mr. Shaw, the powers granted to me under my mandate empower me to refer the alleged violation of article 3 (8) to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, as a reflection of its seriousness and/or systemic nature.
24 June 2024
1 Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee’s findings on communication ACCC/C/2014/102 (Belarus), ECE/MP.PP/C.1/2017/19, para. 107. 2 Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee’s findings on communication ACCC/C/2014/102 (Belarus), ECE/MP.PP/C.1/2017/19, para. 107.Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
Support The Conspiracy Five By Climate Action Support Pathway (CASP)
Conspiracy to cause public nuisance?
Cressie Gethin, Daniel Shaw, Lou Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu & Roger Hallam are currently undergoing trial, charged with conspiracy to cause a public nuisance in connection with the M25 gantry actions in November 2022.
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After participating in a Zoom call in which a Sun journalist was present, all five were subject to police raids at their homes and preemptively arrested. The Sun alleged it had “infiltrated” the public meeting and boasted of tipping off the police and enabling National Highways to secure a public injunction.
Since their arrests, the five have had various restrictions imposed on their freedom - including 113 days imprisonment without trial, a 12-hour home curfew monitored by electronic tag, no contact with co-defendants, and no participation in climate protest.
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They are being judged by a jury of their peers, and if found guilty face up to 10 years in prison.
"When, in the midst of a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, a peaceful environmental protester like Mr. Shaw faces an extended prison sentence in the United Kingdom, alarm bells should go off not just across the United Kingdom, but across the international community also. It signals that fundamental pillars of a democratic society are right now in grave peril in the United Kingdom." UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention - Michel Forst
Why do we need you?
The five are grappling with loss of earnings due to the 3-4 week trial and prior preparation, travel, accommodation and potential custodial sentences. They need your support.
"I am under no illusion that this trial is designed to put heads on spikes. Myself and my co-defendants are being used as scapegoats by a state that is both angry at and terrified of ordinary citizens who are brave enough to risk everything to apply enormous pressure on a government that is knowingly engaging in grave criminal activity by continuing to pour fuel on the flames of global collapse.
If I am to be made an example of then so be it, but I will not be intimidated into silence." - Lucia Whittaker De Abreu
What will your money be spent on?
Your contributions will directly address their essential needs, including travel costs, accommodation, bills, and food, assisting the five in navigating these challenging times.
This trial represents just five out of thousands of people facing the criminal justice system for resisting climate collapse...
Therefore, any surplus funds raised will be donated to Just Stop Oil and Climate Action Support Pathway (CASP) to support others facing similar struggles.Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
on July 14, 2024, 6:51 pm