Courts continue to react to climate protests with ‘heavy hand’
Six members of the Climáximo movement who invaded Tires aerodrome in Cascais, in December last year have been sentenced to 15 months in prison, with the sentence suspended for the same period, according to the Lisbon District Attorney’s Office.
In a press release published on its website, the office writes that the defendants have also been sentenced to a 135-day fine, replaced by an equal number of hours of work in favour of the community.
In January, the Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against the six. The subsequent sentence was handed down by Cascais’ Local Small Crimes Court, which condemned “in an abbreviated process, six defendants for committing, in material co-authorship, a crime of attacking the safety of transport by air, water or rail, and sentenced them to 15 months in prison”.
The defendants were also convicted of entering a place closed to the public and causing damage.
According to the Lisbon District Attorney’s Office statement, the court “proved that on December 6 2023, the defendants, members of an environmental activist organisation, accessed the reserved security area of the Cascais Municipal Aerodrome and then chained themselves to the landing gear of an aircraft parked there and sprayed it with paint”.
The court also proved that, due to the defendants’ conduct, air traffic to and from the aerodrome was closed, leading to the diversion of one flight and the cancellation of 11 others.
The Lisbon District Attorney’s Office added that the judgement has not yet become final; the defendants can still appeal.
PSP police arrested the six Climáximo members ‘on the day’ at Tires aerodrome, after they had spray-painted the private jet and chained themselves to the aircraft in protest against luxury flights.
The young people said they were protesting against the emissions of polluting gases produced by the luxury aviation sector, saying in a statement that “a journey in a private jet between London and New York “emits more CO2 (carbon dioxide) than a Portuguese family does in an entire year”.
Very much in line with similar protests in the United Kingdom, the public has failed to support these actions, particularly when it comes to road blocks, in which some drivers have even exited their vehicles to pull protestors to the side of the road in order to resume their journeys.
These suspended jail sentences are designed to dissuade the movement from further actions, as these would imply the suspensions becoming an effective jail terms.
Source: LUSA
