Quakers concerned for protestors facing long sentences
Quakers are calling on the government to restore the right to protest and freedom of speech.
In a letter to the Home Secretary, Paul Parker, Recording Clerk of Quakers in Britain, said our rights and civil liberties were being undermined by legislation such as the Public Order Act, and the government must work to restore them.
Recent lengthy sentences given to Just Stop Oil protesters (the 'Whole Truth Five') for peaceful actions highlight the issue. The defendants were also denied the right to explain to the jury why they took the action they did. Quakers signed a joint letter to the Attorney General convened by Defend Our Juries, challenging the sentences and restrictions.
The sentences given to these peaceful protesters are in stark contrast to shorter sentences recently given to racist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant rioters for inciting and perpetrating violence.
Quakers in Britain believe in safeguarding the right to protest and refocusing our criminal justice system on prevention, rehabilitation and restorative justice.
Gaie Delap, a Quaker from Bristol who scaled an M25 gantry in November 2022, has just begun a jail sentence of 20 months. Her family describes how the judge noted a series of mitigating circumstances but chose to ignore them completely in his sentencing.
These include that she is 77 years old with declining health, a regular carer for a single mother daughter with three children under 14 and a son with twins just one year old, and a regular carer for her 97-year-old mother-in-law.
Gaie's brother Mick has requested that individual Quakers and others support her by writing to her MP Carla Denyer, their own MP, and the Attorney General to highlight her case.