They stick themselves in museums and on the streets, climb on motorway bridges or, as was the case recently in Berlin, sneak into non-public areas of airports: According to their own statements, all with the aim of drawing attention to the climate crisis.

What the climate activists from groups like "Just Stop Oil" or the "last generation" are doing is at least partially against the law. Again and again, German politicians are calling for tougher penalties for the activists. A British court has now decided what that could look like.

There, at the beginning of November, several "Just Stop Oil" activists climbed onto the gantries above the Landes's busiest motorway, the M25. The goal: stopping the traffic, protesting and thereby drawing attention to their concerns. Several of the activists were arrested after the action, and just under a month after the crime, the first of them was sentenced - and to a relatively long prison sentence.

After the verdict, 57-year-old Jan Goodey must now be behind bars for six months for "causing a public nuisance". Despite the prison sentence, he got off a bit lighter than the judge originally intended: the sentence should have been three months longer - but it was positively evaluated that he had confessed after the crime. The consequences that the other activists have to fear should also be determined quickly: the negotiations between Anthony Whitehouse and Arne Springorum are scheduled for Wednesday.

Very long prison sentences have also become possible thanks to a new law in Great Britain: this year the British government passed the "Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act", which also includes the criminal offense of causing a nuisance. Under the new law, violations can be punished with up to ten years in prison.

Those: "Guardian"