OfAndreina Baccaro
Light penalties for the blockade on the ring road on November 2nd. The reasons for the sentence: the conduct “did not take on excessive severity or violence compared to the purpose declaredly pursued”
The actions of eco activists, i non-violent raids in favor of cameras to shine the spotlight onpollution hey damage to the environment, cannot be treated as any protests. Just as the consequences that the champions of the environment consciously face must be placed in a very particular context: the high moral and social purpose they pursue. For all these reasons, the three Ultima Generation activists who blocked the ring road last November 2nd arrived at stick together to the asphalt with the cement to quick settingdeserve a limited sentence because it is mitigated by the mitigating circumstances of the reasons of particular moral and social value that prompted their actions.
«Higher, noble, altruistic purpose»
The judge of the Court of Bologna, Simona Siena, writes that the three activists «acted to protect a greater goodcertainly not for a selfish purpose or to satisfy a personal and selfish interest, but for a higher purpose, noble and altruistic, or rather the protection of the environment, put at a concrete and increasingly alarming risk of irreversible compromise due to ongoing climate change”. They were on trial for private violence and interruption of public service and were sentenced to only 6 months, with suspended sentence. «Criminal conduct, in fact – continues the judge in a sentence where various constitutional and ECHR rulings are cited – are represented by a form of protestalthough criminally illicit” which was “aimed at raising awareness among public opinion and institutional subjects on the consequences of inertia in the face of climate change and on the unjust threat to future freedoms which weighs on future generations.” “There is no doubt – he continues – that the environment, a primary constitutional value and precondition for the exercise of rights, even fundamental ones, of the person and the community, is a reason of very high social value”.
Conduct that “did not assume excessive severity or violence”
The environmental issue, it is recalled in the sentence, has in fact assumed great importance in the political, economic and legal debate and is the constant subject of alarms by the scientific community for global warming. And «the growing process of awareness and regulation of the matter is accompanied by heartfelt appeals by the highest and most authoritative personalities, institutional, even supranational, and religious”.
Furthermore, according to the judge, the conduct of the accused «they did not take on excessive severity or violence with respect to the purpose declaredly pursued” and the mitigating factor, remember, concerns not the conduct, but the reasons for it. As for the crimesprivate violence exists in having forced to stop numerous motorists and motorcyclists on the ring road, with an unjustified reduction in rights. The interruption Of public service for having had a “concrete and significant” impact not only on the road traffic of thousands of motorists but on services of public importance: police forces, taxis, vans used for transporting medicines, buses and emergency vehicles. However, the judge also cites a very recent ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, which recognized «a causal relationship between the climate crisis and the enjoyment of human rights» protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. The three boys were defended by lawyers Elia De Caro and Mimma Barbarello.
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May 1, 2024
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