Latest editorial
Activists from Just Stop Oil block the route of a tanker as they blockade the ESSO Birmingham Fuel Terminal, Birmingham. Picture date: Friday April 1, 2022.
A JUDGE told Just Stop Oil activists today during their trial for disrupting an Esso oil terminal in Birmingham last year that they “should feel guilty for nothing.”
Seven of the protesters were found guilty and two were acquitted over the action last April, which pressed the demand that the government ends fossil fuel licences.
Harley Brewer, Paul Barnes, Oliver Clegg, Jon Deery, Paul Fawkesley, Naomi Goddard, Diana Hekt, Sylvie More and Alan Woods appeared before District Judge Graham Wilkinson at Wolverhampton magistrates’ court on charges of aggravated trespass.
Former judge ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the details and controversy of Lucy Letby’s trial and appeal in the context of famous historical wrongful convictions that prove both the justice system and legal activists make errors
The heroism of the jury who defied prison and starvation conditions secured the absolute right of juries to deliver verdicts based on conscience — a convention which is now under attack, writes MAT COWARD
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the government’s proposals to further limit the right of citizens to trial by jury