Climate protesters accused of criminal damage cannot fall back on phoney excuses to defend their actions, a top British court has ruled.
London’s Court of Appeal clarified on Monday that activists will not be let off the hook if they argue that damage they cause to property owned by companies would have been allowed by said companies if they had known just how serious climate change really was.
Some defendants have already been cleared by juries because of this ‘defence.’ That is because English law allows a defendant to argue when charged with criminal damage that the property owner would have consented to the damage had they known the reason for this damage.
In a blow to groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR), which have caused tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to properties owned by businesses and political parties, the court ruled that political protesters cannot use this defence because political or philosophical beliefs are “too remote” to be classed as a “lawful excuse.”
The decision came on the same day that an XR demonstrator sprayed paint on the GB News building, which the broadcasting company will have to cash out for to clean up.
Attorney General Victoria Prentis, who asked the Court of Appeal for clarification on this issue, said the judges’ decision was the right one:
Climate change is an important issue and while the right to protest must be protected it does not give a right to cause serious criminal damage no matter how strongly held a belief is.
XR itself responded by claiming that the “political establishment,” in this case represented by the Court of Appeal, is “upholding the interests of the fossil fuel industry that’s dragging us to societal collapse.”
