233 academics have signed a letter calling for a judicial review of “absurdly harsh” prison sentences handed to three fracking protesters on Wednesday.
An open letter, started by staff at the University of Sussex says that the jail terms of between 15 and 16 months for halting a convoy of lorries carrying shale drilling equipment “set a dangerous precedent”. Cuadrilla’s fracking site near Blackpool has been at the centre of continued protests and objections from locals after the government gave the company permission for the UK’s first commercial fracking well.
Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, Richard Roberts, 36, and Rich Loizou, 31, are thought to be the first environmental protesters to receive a jail sentence in the UK since 1932. A fourth protestor, Julian Brock, 47 was given a 12-month prison term, suspended for 18 months, after pleading guilty to causing a public nuisance.
Andrea Brock and Dr Amber Huff, staff at the University of Sussex described the ruling as "part of a wider trend of criminalisation of protest in the UK", and now the letter has been signed by professors, legal scholars and heads of department from around the country.
"This harsh sentencing of environmental protestors suggests that civic space is closing. This is really worrying as non-violent protest is essential for democracy and sustainability," said Professor Ian Scoones, from the Institute for Development Studies at Sussex.
Professor Lyla Mehta, a researcher at the same institute, added: "Fracking is unpopular and controversial around Europe and North America. Using draconian measures and imprisonment to curb peaceful protest is an infringement of basic rights and a blot on UK democracy".
Judge Robert Altham said he did not suspend the sentences as “each of them remains motivated by unswerving confidence that they are right”.
Greenpeace UK executive director, John Sauve, said: “Ministers have changed laws, taken away homeowners’ rights and distorted the planning process to make way for the shale industry, yet it’s four peaceful protesters that get punished for climbing on a lorry. As the world’s leading scientists are about to issue their latest warning on the existential threat fossil fuels pose to our living world, these Lancashire protesters deserve our gratitude, not a prison term.”
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