Greenpeace activists who stopped tanker carrying Russian diesel from unloading in Uk are CLEARED

10 Greenpeace activists who compelled a tanker carrying £30million of Russian diesel to U-convert in the River Thames have been cleared of aggravated trespass, with a choose stating Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine ‘could be explained as terrorism’.

The defendants, aged involving 27 and 72, claimed they were ‘preventing a crime’ by occupying a jetty at Navigator Terminals in Grays, Essex, blocking the vessel from unloading.

District choose Christopher Williams, who returned his judgment at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Friday, explained: ‘I acquire the view it is additional than very likely the Russian war could be described as terrorism.’

The 10 defendants had denied, and ended up every single cleared of, a single charge of obstructing or disrupting a individual engaged in a lawful exercise underneath the Prison Justice and General public Purchase Act 1994.

The charge said that they trespassed on land at Navigator Terminals and blocked the jetty, obstructing or disrupting ‘a lawful activity, particularly fuel distribution’.

Henry Blaxand KC, defending, questioned irrespective of whether the unloading of the Russian diesel was lawful action, and the judge explained that ‘in my watch the unloading of the oil was the likely offence’.

The protesters broke out into applause and there ended up cheers as the choose uncovered each individual of them not responsible.

Greenpeace activists (still left to proper) Lyndall Stein, Mike Grant, Ben Hearne-Salter, Henry Rayner, David James, Rhiannon Wooden, Kim Harrison, Benji Bailes, Ian Mills and Zoe Pontida outdoors Chelmsford Magistrates’ Courtroom, Essex prior to their demo for blocking a jetty at an oil terminal in Grays, Essex. They were all cleared by a judge on Friday 

Andromeda a Greek registered Oil Taker arrives in the River Thames to offload 33,000 Tonnes of Russian Diesel 24 hrs late just after customers of Greenpeace held up its discharge on May possibly 10

The 10 defendants experienced denied, and have been each individual cleared of, a single demand of obstructing or disrupting a individual engaged in a lawful activity less than the Felony Justice and General public Order Act 1994

Prosecutor Monali Ralerasker argued that the case did not ‘require an examination of what is morally right and what’s morally wrong’.

But the decide claimed it was ‘arguable that offences may well have been dedicated beneath the Terrorism Act 2000’, and that the ‘activity which the defendants disrupted was the extremely point they had been protesting about’.

The protesters took two dinghy boats to accessibility the jetty from the riverside late on Could 15 this yr.

Activists connected on their own to the construction and shown a banner that explained ‘oil fuels war’.

The Andromeda tanker, which was Greek-flagged and carrying Russian oil, was turned all around in the Thames in the early hours of May 16.

1 of the activists who scaled the jetty, former lieutenant colonel Michael Grant, 62, explained to the court: ‘The purpose of the motion was to attract awareness to the point that fossil fuels were getting imported and thus funding Putin’s war.’

Talking afterwards, Mr Grant explained: ‘This is a fantastic result.

Just one of the Greenpeace activists pictured as the team stopped a tanker carrying 33,000 tonnes of Russian diesel from docking in Essex

‘This verdict is not just a reduction for us but a total vindication of the ethical beliefs that led us to act.’

A further of the activists, instructor Zoe Pontida, described it as a ‘seismic verdict’.

The 32-calendar year-aged said: ‘It will not just completely vindicate our action, it also puts the Uk governing administration squarely in the dock.

‘The decide has recognised that we are just common folks whose conscience compelled us to cease the oil funding Putin’s campaign of point out terrorism in Ukraine.’

The defendants have been: Benji Bailes, 38, of Gloucester Michael Grant, 62, of Rosewell, Midlothian Kim Harrison, 38, of Oldham, Greater Manchester Benjamin Hearne-Salter, 41, of Kashmir Street, south London David James, 62, of Bromfelde Highway, south London Ian Mills, 56, of Chippenham, Wiltshire Zoe Pontida, 32, of Oxford Henry Rayner, 28, of Ivanhoe Road, south London Lyndall Stein, 72, of Surrey Row, south London Rhiannon Wood, 27, of Hedge Close, around Southampton, Hampshire.