Just Stop Oil activist jailed for six months for taking part in slow march | Environmental activism

A climate activist has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to taking part in a peaceful slow march protest on a London road.

The sentence handed down to Stephen Gingell, 57, is believed to be the first jail term under a new law which critics say makes anyone who walks in a road liable to prosecution for “interfering with vital national infrastructure”.

Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023 prohibits any law preventing newspaper printing presses, power plants, oil and gas extraction or distribution sites, ports, airports, railways or roads from being “used or operated to any extent”, with a possible fine of 12 months in prison.

Gingell, a father of three from Manchester, was one of around 40 supporters of Just stop oil who spent around 30 minutes marching on Holloway Road in north London at around 4pm on November 12, the climate campaign group said.

He pleaded guilty to breaching section 7 at a trial the same month at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court. On Thursday, his case was transferred to Manchester Magistrates’ Court, where he was sentenced to six months.

Just Stop Oil has been campaigning for the UK government to stop all new fossil fuel production since 2022. The campaign’s “guerrilla tactics” was cited by the Home Office when it introduced the Public Order Act’s tough new anti-protest measures to parliament.

At the end of October, the police began to use Article 7 to crack down on Just Stop Oil’s protests, 60 people participating in a march arrested on Parliament Square. In a campaign of slow march protests the group waged between then and December 4, 470 of the group’s supporters were arrested 630 times, with about half of those arrests under the new law.

A spokesman for the campaign said: “Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, a law drafted by the fossil fuel lobby, was introduced by Priti Patel in April, and covers ‘interfering with the use or operation of important national infrastructure’. It seems that this government has now made it an illegal act to walk down the road, to walk on the public highway worthy of imprisonment.

“How many fathers will be imprisoned before those who plan to kill us are stopped? New oil and gas will see millions upon millions lose their homes, livelihoods and lives. Protected by the government, by failed politicians, by the police, those who commit genocide continue to walk free, those who protest the killings are assaulted. Whose side are you on?”

The human rights organization Liberty criticized Gingell’s sentencing. Katy Watts, a lawyer at Liberty, said: “It is shocking to see such harsh sentences being handed down to protesters. This is yet another unnecessary and draconian law put in place by a government bent on discouraging people from standing up for what they believe in. This is a clear attempt to silence people and for the government to hide from all accountability.

“Protest is a fundamental right, not a gift from the state. The government should be protecting our right to protest, not criminalizing it.”