Climate protest jail term is ‘disproportionate’

A human rights expert has described the change of a year prayer to a climate change activist as “blatantly disproportionate.”

Dr. Patrick Hart caused thousands of pounds of damage to the duration of fuel pumps, a fair oil demonstration in August 2022 and said he had done, so he believed that the world was in a “truly dark and unprecedented time.”

The UN Special Rapporteur, Michel Forst, compared the laws of the United Kingdom protesters such as Honduras and Azerbaijan.

The Interior Ministry said the United Kingdom had a “proud tradition” of peaceful protest, but people should “do it within the law”, with a Labor deputy who told Dr. Hart of the BBC “deserved to be in jail.”

Dr. Hart, 38, was imprisoned in January after causing damage to 16 fuel pumps in the services of the Thurock Highway, in Grays, Essex.

The Bristol -based GP hit the bombs with a hammer, sprayed them with orange paint and obstructed trucks in refunding the station. He was sentenced to 12 months for criminal damage.

The cost of repairing the pumps was £ 9,376 and the action closed the pumps for a day while repairs were carried out.

It was one of several fair oil protests that caused the former conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak to describe activists as “selfish”, adding that those found guilty should “face difficult sentences.”

“It is what the public expects and that is what we have delivered,” he said.

But Mr. Fors said that legislation on peaceful protest in the United Kingdom should be repealed, since he believed he was “draconian.”

He said: “If you compare the situation in the United Kingdom with other European countries, you don’t see such hard sentences.

“In France Recitarios a small fine, never prison. But in the United Kingdom, peaceful protesters receive 12 months in prison.”

In BBC Politics West, Swindon North MP Will Stone said there was no reason for laws to be repealed by work.

He said: “This was not a peaceful protest, this is a property that destroys. Play stupid games, win stupid awards.”

Stone said Dr. Hart “should be in jail” for what he had done, they adjon the opinions of the UN Special Rapporteur.

Dr. Hart told the BBC that a telephone interview lasted from the prison, he believed that his action had been justified.

When the seriousness of his crimes is challenged and the possibility of repeating them, Dr. Heart added: “The way in the justice system is an offensive pattern that seems absurd.

“I am not doing this for any benefit. I am doing it for completely selfless reasons because I am terrified by human civilization or the lack of a future.

“It is very unlikely to come out and do the same things again.”

Dr. Heart said he believed that his actions had justified his leg as the main duty of a doctor was “acting in the best interest of our patients.”

“I only came to appreciate that the climatic crisis is the greatest risk for all our health and anything else I may be doing is meaningless and the most significant thing I can do is try to overcome that,” he said.

“It is very strange for me to damaging inanimate objects be a consultant is no longer peaceful.

“As a doctor, if it is an emergency and bring it unconscious, I will cut your clothes, even if you are an exensive designer, only to get to the wound, if you are bleeding and could cause death.

“That is not a violent consideration, that is to praise.”

But former conservative deputy Richard Graham does not agree with his views, saying that the protest “was not peaceful at all.”

“This was an extremely spending, aggressive and exhausting behavior. And very strangely, frankly, of a header who should take care of patients in a very quiet and distributed way.”

The attached leader of the green parties in the council of the city of Bristol said the protests had made a “significant difference” for government policy.

Forst said he had been “very moved” after a visit to Dr. Hart in Chelmsford prison.

He has threatened to refer to the UN British Government for the UN Human Rights Committee if he does not fully respond to his legal opinion.

In addition, Dr. Hart also had his Registration of the General Medical Council (GMC) suspended for an interim period of 12 months, and faces a possible additional suspension after his release.

“Dr. Hart has already been punished by the Judicial System of the United Kingdom for his climate activism,” Forst said.

“He has been prosecuted, convicted and sanctioned for his participation in peaceful civil disobedience.

“One of the courts that condemned him also recognize that Dr. Hart’s motivations were completely altruistic.”

Fors questioned what he was trying to achieve GMC “depriving him of the possibility of being a doctor.”

He said he “punish him for the second time, for having action tasks to address what the GMC himself calls” one of the greatest threats to human health. ”

“Added to his conviction by a court, this professional sanction would not only be a form of penalty, persecution or harassment or Dr. Heart, but would also be one that is based on surprisingly paradoxical reasons,” he said.

A GMC spokesman said he was “committed to doing what we can to address climate change”, but it was for Parliament to determine whether the relationship of the United Kingdom’s law with the protests needed to change.

The orientation for doctors, the GMC added, was that they were allowed “personal political opinions”, but a custody sentence would lead to a derivation to the Medical Court service.

“This is required by law, and we cannot exercise any discretion about this,” added the spokesman.

“When doctors’ protest break in the law, they must understand that they are their actions to break the law, instead of their motivations, which will be under scrutiny.

“Patients and the public have a high degree of confidence in doctors, that trust can be at risk when doctors do not comply with the law.”