"After an intense day of legal proceedings and an hour of harrowing cross-examination for both my partner, Holly, and me, I'm deeply relieved that we've won today. I feel this is a huge victory for the climate movement and for the laws protecting peaceful protest in this country as a whole. The judge's level of confidence in unusually announcing the outcome immediately is a chink of hope in an environment of repression."
"Marcus Decker was jailed for two years and seven months for a protest in which he climbed the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Dartford Crossing and unveiled a Just Stop Oil banner in October 2022. He was served with an automatic deportation order while in prison. If he had been unsuccessful in his appeal, the 36-year-old German national would have been the first person to have been deported from the UK for peaceful protest."
Marcus Decker, a 36-year-old German climate activist, won his appeal against an automatic deportation order after serving a jail term for a peaceful protest. Decker climbed the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Dartford Crossing and unveiled a Just Stop Oil banner in October 2022, receiving a two-year-and-seven-month sentence and serving 16 months. His legal team argued deportation would be disproportionate, violate his right to family life with his partner and stepchildren, and chill legitimate protest amid the climate crisis. The appeal drew support from experts, religious leaders, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, 22 Nobel laureates and hundreds of artists.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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