Climate activists’ convictions quashed

The con­vic­tions of 20 cli­mate activists were quashed by the Court of Appeal on Wednes­day. The 20 had been con­vict­ed of con­spir­a­cy to com­mit aggra­vat­ed tres­pass at Rat­cliffe-on-Soar pow­er sta­tion, in Decem­ber last year. How­ev­er, rev­e­la­tions about the with­hold­ing of evi­dence gath­ered by under­cov­er police offi­cer Mark Kennedy led to the Direc­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions request­ing an inde­pen­dent review into the safe­ty of the pros­e­cu­tions. Lord Chief Jus­tice, Lord Judge, said the con­vic­tions had been a mis­car­riage of jus­tice.

On the IMC newswire: Cli­mate activists’ con­vic­tions quashed | HM Court of Appeal: Lord Chief Jus­tice Appeal Judge­ment on Ratcliffe20 | Not­ting­hamshire­Po­lice extreme­ly dis­ap­point­ed shame | Rat­cliffe pow­er sta­tion pro­test­ers cleared on appe | Rat­cliffe Crown Court Tri­al ‘Col­lect­ed Report’ PDF

Pre­vi­ous fea­tures: Guilty ver­dict in Rat­cliffe tri­al | Rat­cliffe Tri­al: Week 2 | Rat­cliffe Tri­al: Pros­e­cu­tion Opens | Rat­cliffe Con­spir­a­cy Tri­al Begins | Mass Arrest of 114 Cli­mate Activists in Raid

Activists’ state­ment

We are 20 of the 114 peo­ple who were pre­emp­tive­ly arrest­ed near E.ON’s Rat­cliffe-on-Soar coal pow­er sta­tion over two years ago. Dur­ing our tri­al last year we argued that our plan to safe­ly shut down the pow­er sta­tion was nec­es­sary in order to pro­tect the ever esca­lat­ing num­bers of peo­ple dying as a result of cli­mate change. We lat­er found out our tri­al was rigged by the police and CPS to get con­vic­tions.

Through plac­ing under­cov­er offi­cers in our move­ment, using mass pre­emp­tive arrest and rig­ging our tri­al, the state has delib­er­ate­ly attempt­ed to silence dis­sent­ing voic­es. This quelling of dis­sent, now repeat­ed in the young peo­ple fac­ing prison for protest­ing against the attacks on pub­lic ser­vices, is fun­da­men­tal­ly unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic. It is yet anoth­er exam­ple of those in pow­er pro­tect­ing their own inter­ests. Whether it’s E.ON Ener­gy or News Inter­na­tion­al, the gov­ern­ment and police have a track record of col­lud­ing with big busi­ness. We need to look at the root caus­es of cli­mate change, and ask why the prof­its of cor­po­ra­tions such as E.ON are being pri­ori­tised over future gen­er­a­tions, and the mil­lions already on the front line of our chang­ing cli­mate. Tak­ing action on cli­mate change is not an act of moral right­eous­ness, its about pro­tect­ing our future. His­to­ry is full of exam­ples of ordi­nary peo­ple act­ing to defend their rights and those of oth­ers, and we need a strong move­ment of peo­ple doing just that. Win­ning this appeal is just one small vic­to­ry in the fight against the sys­tem­i­cal­ly polit­i­cal nature of polic­ing. We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with all those have suf­fered injus­tice from the state or face repres­sion for dar­ing to take polit­i­cal action.

Links:

Rat­cliffe on Tri­al

The full judg­ment

DPP announce­ment of inde­pen­dent inquiry

Not­ting­hamshire Police state­ment