Three fracking protesters jailed for causing a public nuisance are to appeal against their sentences.
Simon Blevins, 26, from Sheffield, and Richard Roberts, 36, of London, were both jailed for 16 months, while Rich Loizou, 31, from Devon, was jailed for 15 months.
Preston Crown Court heard they climbed onto lorries outside energy firm Cuadrilla’s fracking site in Preston New Road in Little Plumpton, Lancashire, in a protest which lasted just short of 100 hours
A fourth defendant, Julian Brock, 47, from Torquay was sentenced to 12 months in custody, suspended for 18 months.
Academics across the country responded by signing a letter to express a “growing concern about the shrinking space for communities and environmental defenders to engage in civil opposition to fracking developments in the UK”.
The letter goes on to argue that the campaigners were handed a lengthy jail term “for simply ‘causing a public nuisance’ and for not expressing regret”.
The letter ends with those signatories requesting a parliamentary inquiry into “the declining space” for civil protest.
Andrea Brock, lecturer in International Relations, and Dr. Amber Huff, research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, said: “We started this letter to express our serious concerns about the absurdly harsh jails sentences of three anti-fracking protesters who took action against fracking in Lancashire in 2017.”