Forty climate activists, including Olympic gold medallist Etienne Stott and a former police officer, are asking the solicitor general to charge them with contempt of court should he prosecute a social worker for holding up a placard outside a climate trial.
Climate activist Trudi Warner held up a sign which read “Jurors you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience”, outside a trial of fellow Insulate Britain protestors. Warner had done so in defiance of Judge Silas Reid, who had previously asked protestors not to mention climate change before the jury.
In a letter to the solicitor general the signatories criticised his decision calling out what they see as the dismissal of “a constitutional safeguard against the abuse of executive power”.
1. BREAKING: 40 members of the public send letter to Solicitor General saying “if you prosecute Trudi Warner, you should prosecute us too”https://t.co/S5t3Rqx6W3
— Plan B Earth (@PlanB_earth) August 17, 2023
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The letter from the climate activists read: “On 12 July, the Government’s legal department wrote to Trudi Warner, indicating an intention on your part to apply for her committal to prison for contempt of court”.
It continued: “In the face of such violations of our ancient liberties, it should come as no surprise that members of the public are ready to take a stand. Such was the context for Trudi Warner’s simple and truthful sign.”
“Like Trudi, we are willing to defend the principle of the right to trial by jury, which includes the right to acquit despite a direction from the judge that there is no defence, even if it includes the right to acquit despite a direction from the judge that there is no defence, even if it leads to our arrest and imprisonment.”
The letter likened it to action against the Colston 4 and other protestors and climate activists, which it described as “a series of politically embarrassing jury acquittals of those who have sought to expose government and corporate injustice and oppression”.
Canoe medallist and climate activist Etienne Stott tweeted that he was “proud to be involved in this campaign and to have played a small part in standing up for this critically important check on authoritarian power”.
Proud to be involved in this campaign and to have played a small part in standing up for this critically important check on authoritarian power. https://t.co/RaDbKX95Bw
— Etienne Stott MBE 🌍 (@EtienneStott) August 12, 2023
Another climate activist who signed the letter, a police officer who joined the force when he was 19, told The Guardian that he became an officer to “protect the good people from the bad”.
He continued: “The legal system in the UK is doing the exact opposite. They are protecting polluters, allowing increased harm and obscene profits; while prosecuting people trying to save life in a way that is so unjust; gagging them from sharing their motivation with the jury.”
“Extinction changes everything and the legal system must wake up and become a force for good”.
