“I don’t know how you can sit here and listen to lengthy explanations of traffic data, but prevent young people like Xavi from talking about the threat to our future and people around the world,” she said about 22-year-old activist Xavier Gonzalez-Trimmer, who was found dead in Richmond Park, south London, in February after being missing for almost a week.

“History shows that the law is not always in line with justice, so I cannot and I will not follow your rules…” When so-called leaders are neglecting their basic duty, which is surely to preserve life, then it is more important for me to protect than it is for me to be silent. “We are rapidly and willingly extinguishing the conditions necessary for life on earth. “I wanted to set the context of the action we took in this courtroom,” she started. Pritchard, a 38-year-old horticultural worker from London, was up next to outline her reasons for ignoring Reid’s ruling. “I now see how naive I have been,” she added. While she didn’t apologise, Lewis told the judge that she had hoped that the legal system would be sympathetic to people who are trying to save lives. There is no choice but to give voice to the truth.” “I wanted to bring public attention to the scandal of thousands of deaths in the UK due to fuel poverty and thousands of deaths around the world due to climate change.

Lewis, a 65-year-old town councillor from Dorset, spoke first, telling Reid: “I continue to be astonished that today in a British court of law, a judge can or would even want to ban and criminalise the mention of the words ‘fuel poverty’ and ‘climate crisis’. Reid gave both an opportunity to apologise and explain why they defied his ruling. Today the defendants admitted to being in contempt of court. Silas Reid had forbidden the defendants from citing the climate crisis or fuel poverty as the reasons for their actions, telling them it was for “history to judge, not the jury”.īut during their closing statements, both Lewis and Pritchard made reference to the climate crisis when explaining why they staged a protest, prompting Reid to order the jury to leave the courtroom twice. The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened.

Open gb whatsapp