UK: Activists to Appeal Against Prison Sentences

Three environmental activists who became the first people to be jailed for an anti-fracking protest in the UK are to appeal against their sentences amid growing anger over their “excessive and extraordinary” punishments.
Three activists Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were sentenced to 16 months in prison, and Richard Loizou, 31, was given 15 months after a jury at Preston crown court convicted them of causing a public trouble.
The men were charged in the wake of participating in a four-day challenge that hindered a guard of trucks conveying boring hardware from entering the Preston New Road fracking site close Blackpool in July a year ago.
The leader of the universal human rights group at Doughty St Chambers Kirsty Brimelow QC, who is driving the interest on a genius bono premise, stated: “We are applying to the court of advance for endeavor of the interest. We are blessed in this nation that there is this alternative. The center accommodation for this situation was made at Preston crown court – that it isn’t right to bolt up tranquil dissidents.”
On Saturday, companions, family and supporters of the three men will organize a solidarity show outside HMP Preston, where they are being held. Planton Loizou, a previous visit administrator and the dad of Richard Loizou, will go to his first political challenge in over 40 years.
> Alma Siddiqua