Nine climate activists at Britain’s Insulate were sentenced on Wednesday to three to six months in prison for violating a court-imposed road ban.
Insulate Britain has been implementing road closures, mostly via the London Bypass, since September. Sitting on the road or sticking to the asphalt, activists are calling on the British government to make binding pledges to insulate the country’s 29 million leaky homes to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Because of the disruption caused by these protests, a court has banned National Highways – the motorway and motorway operator in England – from operating this type of business. People who were sentenced on Wednesday broke it on October 8, blocking an exit from the London Bypass, Britain’s highest-traffic road.
Of these, two were sentenced to three months in prison, and six to four months in prison, and an activist whose testimony was found “provocative” was sentenced to six months in prison “to prevent him from committing further abuse.”
The court made clear that there was no substitute for prison sentences, given that the group’s actions were extremely serious and the defendants indicated that they intended to ignore the court’s orders. The court noted, “It seems that the defendants, or some of them, want to be martyrs for their case, and the media campaign around this interrogation suggests that.”
One of the nine prisoners is Roman B. NS. A Polish or British citizen of Polish origin.
Insulate Britain announced that it intended to continue the protests.
From London Bartłomiej Niedziński (PAP)
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