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The lengthy multi-year sentences handed to Just Stop Oil<\/a> activists are \u201cnot acceptable in a democracy\u201d, a UN special rapporteur has said, as the government faced growing pressure to reverse the previous administration\u2019s \u201chardline anti-protest\u201d approach.<\/p>\n Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, joined a growing chorus of voices condemning the sentences handed down to the five defendants for planning non-violent protests on the M25.<\/p>\n But the government said it would not intervene in the case, with Keir Starmer\u2019s spokesman saying judgments and sentencing were matters for independent judges, \u201cand it is not for politicians to intervene\u201d.<\/p>\n Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were each sentenced to four years in prison<\/a> this week after being found guilty of planning disruptive protests on the M25. A fifth defendant, Roger Hallam, was sentenced to five years by a judge who said he \u201csat at the very highest level of the conspiracy\u201d.<\/p>\n Forst, whose role is to protect individuals facing penalisation, persecution, or harassment for exercising their environmental rights, attended two days of the trial earlier this month<\/a> as he attempted to intervene with UK authorities on behalf of Shaw. He called the jail terms \u201cpunitive and repressive\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are really shocked by what\u2019s happening in the UK in the case of Daniel Shaw,\u201d Forst told the Guardian on Friday. \u201cHe has already spent more than 100 days on remand. Now, to hear that he\u2019s been sentenced to four years in prison, that\u2019s really shocking.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if we are talking about a disruptive form of protest, and there is no denying that, it is still entirely non-violent and it should have been treated as such. For me, for my team, it\u2019s not acceptable in a democracy like the UK.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second element is that it\u2019s a very dangerous ruling, not only for environmental protesters, but also for the right to protest as such, because we understand now that those who would like to go to the street to demonstrate, to organise a rally, they would consider twice before going out.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a deterrent for the right to protest in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he was in discussions to visit the UK in the autumn, and that he hoped to meet the new attorney general, Richard Hermer, to discuss the case \u201cbut more broadly what\u2019s happening with the right to protest and democracy in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n A host of human rights campaigners joined Forst in decrying the sentences. Sam Grant, director of advocacy at Liberty, said what appeared to be a trend for increasingly severe sentences for non-violent protest indicated \u201ca grave erosion of \u2026 freedoms\u201d in the UK. Hanna Hindstrom, who investigates rights abuses against environmental defenders for Global Witness, said the \u201cincredibly harsh\u201d sentences were \u201ca profound injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n And Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK\u2019s human rights adviser, called on the government to repeal the portions of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 that legislated the statutory offence of public nuisance used against the defendants.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s draconian sentences and the manner in which the trial was conducted show that the hardline anti-protest approach adopted by the previous government is being emulated by the courts,\u201d Southerden said.<\/p>\n But on Friday, government officials said ministers would not intervene. Pressed on whether Labour would look again at anti-protest laws it opposed before entering government, Starmer\u2019s spokeswoman said: \u201cThe prime minister is very clear that when it comes to these cases, the judgments and sentencing is for independent judges to make them, they\u2019ve had all the facts and evidence before them.<\/p>\n