UK environmental activists cleared of charges brought against them during rooftop protest at Sunak residence
LONDON — Four Greenpeace activists arrested for climbing country estate of the former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and draping it in black cloth to protest his oil and gas drilling expansion project in the North Sea were acquitted of all criminal charges.
Judge Adrian Lower at York Magistrates’ Court dismissed the charges on Friday after ruling the evidence was too “thin” to convict them of criminal damage for allegedly cracking tiles on Sunak’s slate roof in North Yorkshire.
“Justice and common sense prevailed in court today, but that hasn’t been the case for many activists recently,” one of the defendants, Michael Grant, said outside the courtroom. “We have become a country that routinely sends peaceful protesters to prison, some facing years in prison for trying to preserve a habitable planet for all of us. This has to stop.”
While other environmental protesters, including Greta Thunberg, climate activisthave also won their cases in British courts, many others have been found guilty and some have received lengthy prison sentences.
Five activists who planned a protest to block traffic on a major motorway surrounding London, causing a major blockage for several days in November 2022 were sentenced in July up to five years in prison.
The trial against Grant, 64, Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Mathieu Soete, 38, was halted in July after defence lawyer Owen Greenhall argued that prosecutors had failed to prove that 15 slate tiles were damaged by protesters during a five-hour demonstration in August 2023.
The four protesters covered the house with long black sheets while two other protesters stood on the lawn below, holding a banner reading: “Rishi Sunak – Oil Profits or Our Future?”
Sunak and his family were on holiday in California at the time.
Earlier this week, Sunak – a Conservative who was ousted in July this year by Labour leader Keir Starmer – announced that Britain would award hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, a move widely criticised for reversing the government’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
UN scientists and environmental groups have called on world leaders to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, which are blamed for rising temperatures, drought and drought-related flooding. human-induced climate changeBurning oil and gas to fuel vehicles, factories and power plants releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming.
The damage to Sunak’s roof was estimated at around £3,000 ($4,000).
A roofer who had a contract with Sunak testified at the trial that 15 broken tiles he examined in an area where protesters had visited showed they had been recently damaged.
But Greenhall said the testimony was unreliable because of the roofer’s business relationship with Sunak and because there was damage to tiles on other areas of the roof not affected by protesters.
“It’s clear that this roof has pre-existing damage in areas where the protesters didn’t go,” Greenhall said. “This is not a spotless roof by any means.”
The judge said he would issue a full decision on November 11.
