Tanvi Sinha
Over 1,400 protestors have been taken to court in London who were charged with criminal damage and obstruction of the highway and other such public disorder related offences.
This comes as thousands of people came to the streets as part of the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion, whose aim as according to the media, is to cause a major disruption that creates awareness towards the climate change issue and pushes the government for a change regarding the subject.
Raj Chadha, a lawyer for many of the defendants from Hodge Jones and Allen, says the intention behind charging the protestors petty crime is something brought about by some kind of political pressure and to continue doing the case when the COVID-19 crisis is still looming yet a health danger as well as an unnecessary cost to incur for the CPS (Crown Protection Services).
He implies political pressure behind the arrests. Earlier in September 2020, Priti Patel, Home Secretary labelled the group as criminals.
Extinction Rebellion itself said that 3,400 people were arrested and 1700 charged of which 900 or so have pleaded guilty while 800 still face the court or have been already tried.
These arrests happen to be one of the biggest legal crackdowns in all of Britain’s 800 years of legal history.
