Fracking Campaigners Freed As 'Manifestly Excessive' Jail Sentence Overturned

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Three judges have quashed the prison sentence of the three anti-fracking protestors, ruling the sentence to be โ€œmanifestly excessiveโ€.ย The court room erupted into applause,ย when the decision wasย announced.

Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts and Richard Loizou willย walk out free of Preston prison in Lancashire this evening and go home to theirย families.

The appeal case was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday morning in a packed court room with Blevins, Roberts and Loizou appearing through a video link from Prestonย prison.

Following a two hour hearing, Lord Chief Justice Sir Ian Burnett told the court: โ€œWe are concluding that an immediate custodial sentence was manifestly excessiveโ€, adding an appropriate sentence should have been a community order with a significant requirement for unpaidย work.

โ€œThe appellants have been in custody for three weeks and as a result, and only for that reason, we are concluding that the only sentence could be a conditional discharge for twoย yearsโ€.

The three men were seen smiling in disbelief through the videoย link.

Outside the courtroom there was an explosion of joy from the three menโ€™s families and girlfriends, who attended the appeal.ย ย 

Platon Loizou, Richard Loizouโ€™s father, told DeSmog UK: โ€œI am over the moon and the fight will continue against fracking. The first phase was to get my son out of prison. Now the fightย continuesโ€.

Speaking outside the court, Michelle Easton, Robertsโ€™ girlfriend, said: โ€œWe are going to go straight to Euston station and pick our boys up from Prestonย prison.โ€

She added that while the three men were still convicted of causing public nuisance, the latest sentence was aligned with โ€œthe rights that we have in thisย countryโ€.

โ€œYou do not lock up protesters who are peaceful, who have strong convictions and who stand for what is right. That should not be allowed to happen in thisย country.โ€


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Last month, Blevins, a soil scientist, Roberts, a piano restorer, and Loizou, a teacher, were sentenced to 16 and 15 months in prison at Preston Crown Court after being convicted by a jury ofย causing a publicย nuisanceย offence.ย ย 

This was the first time campaigners had been jailed in theย UKย forย anti-frackingย protests.

In July, the three men spent betweenย two and four days on top of lorries that were making their way to the Preston New Road fracking siteย in Lancashire, where Cuadrilla Resources hasย started to frack for shale gasย onย Monday.

The three menโ€™s case had come to embody the struggle against fracking in theย UK, which protestors have longย denounced as โ€œundemocraticโ€ given the strength of local opposition to theย projects.

They say fracking companies are also ignoring the warnings of theย UNย Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,ย which said in a landmark report last week that the world has 12 years to take rapid and unprecedented action to cuts greenhouse gas emissions if it wants to avoid the worst impacts ofย climateย change.

Theย Case

The appeal was heard a week after The Daily Mirror reported that Judge Robert Altham, who sentenced the three campaigners to prison, had family ties to the energy company Centrica, which bought a 25 per cent stake in Cuadrilla and its partner AJ Lucasโ€™ explorationย licence.

The 2013 deal also included Centrica pumping ยฃ60 million into the Lancashire fracking venture.ย ย 

Kirsty Brimelow QC, the human rights lawyer who was representing the three men pro-bono, also told the court that Judge Althamโ€™s sister had signed a petition in Lancashire in favour ofย fracking.

The alleged connection to Judge Altham to the fracking industry was not part of the appeal hearing and the allegations would be considered separately.ย ย ย 

Brimelow made the case that the prison sentences breached the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to freedom of thought and conscience, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedomย ofย assembly.

She said that โ€œthere is not a single caseโ€ upheld by the European Court of Human Rights in which immediate custodial sentence for up to 16 months was given to peaceful protestors and that the custody sentence in this case was not passed and was โ€œentirelyย disproportionateโ€.


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She added the sentences had โ€œcaused outrageโ€ from environmental campaigners and that it had had โ€œa chilling effect uponย protestersโ€.ย 

Brimelow also made the case of the good characters of the three men, which she described as โ€œliving a life that is veryย selflessโ€.

โ€œThese are highly educated people who put their education and their beliefs to the benefits of othersโ€, sheย added.

The court also heard that dozens of letters of support and references were sent to the court testifying of the good character of the threeย men.

At the time of publication, Cuadrilla Resources had not commented on theย case.

Reactions

Reactions to the news of the three anti-fracking protestorsโ€™ prison sentences being overturned quickly poured in on socialย media.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Twitter that he welcomed the decision โ€œto quash the unjust sentences of frackingย protestorsโ€.

โ€œWe stand in solidarity with the activists and thank them for standing up to the further destruction of our environment by this Tory Government,โ€ heย added.

Green MP Caroline Lucas tweeted: โ€œWonderful news – Richard, Richard and Roscoe are free! This is a huge victory for the climate justice movement and for our basic right toย protest.โ€

In a short statement, Friends of the Earth said: โ€œWe are very pleased that the Court of Appeal has today found that the custodial sentences were manifestly excessive and quashed them. This is a greatย outcome.โ€

Image credit:ย Soapbox.en

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