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The founder of Extinction Rebellion has been jailed for five years in what is believed to be the longest sentence for non-violent protest in the UK, Report informs referring to The Telegraph.
Roger Hallam was found guilty of conspiring to block traffic as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign on the M25 over four days of disruption in November 2022.
Four other activists were given four-year sentences for the protests, in which demonstrators climbed the gantry above the motorway and displayed Just Stop Oil banners.
The court heard that each of the defendants had recruited activists over a Zoom call to take part in the demonstration, which the prosecution said had caused economic damage of nearly £750,000 and cost the police £1 million.
Daniel Shaw, 38, from Northampton, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 34, from Derby, Louise Lancaster, 58, from Cambridge, and Cressida Gethin, 22, from Hereford, were all sentenced to four years in prison.
During the protests the activists organised height training and rehearsed a “blue lights policy” to let police pass.
The disruption allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of traffic delay, affecting the journeys of more than 700,000 vehicles, and left a police officer suffering concussion and bruising after he was knocked off his motorbike in traffic.
