British climate protesters who plotted highway shutdown given record harsh prison sentences

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Five climate activists who planned a protest to cause gridlock and block traffic over four days on a major highway circling London have been sentenced to as much as five years in prison. Judge Christopher Hehir on Thursday gave Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam the longest sentence and four-year terms to the others in Southwark Crown Court. Just Stop Oil says they were the harshest sentences for peaceful protest in England. The group’s disruptive tactics have earned them a huge amount of attention while creating critics and leading to jail time. The group called the sentences “an obscene perversion of justice.”