Activists outside the Court of Appeal
JAIL terms for Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters suggest judges have misunderstood the Human Rights Act across three decades – and could prompt an “extraordinary jump” in sentencing, the Court of Appeal heard today.
Danny Friedman KC said he was surprised “it isn’t simple” that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly should be considered when sentencing defendants with “conscientious motivation.”
A failure to to do so for 16 activists across four protests, who were jailed for up to five years in 2024, suggests “a lack of clarity and comfortableness with sentencing in human rights cases,” he suggested.
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