Climate activist sentenced to prison - no probation
A Berlin Court sentences an activist of the Last Generation to a prison term of one year and four months. In addition to sticker and paint actions, she is also accused of resisting bailiffs. The 32-year-old will not serve her sentence.
After color attacks and street blockades in Berlin, a climate activist was sentenced to one year and four months in prison. The Amtsgericht Tiergarten found the member of the group Letzte Generation guilty of damage to property, resistance against bailiffs, and coercion, according to a court spokesperson. The judgment is not yet final.
The 32-year-old participated in five incidents between October 2022 and February 2023, according to the judgment. She glued herself to roads or so-called traffic signal bridges during street blockades.
Moreover, she took part in two paint attacks: On March 7, 2023, the climate group sprayed the facade of the Federal Transport Ministry with orange paint in protest against the policy of Transport Minister Volker Wissing from the FDP. For this, the activists had rented a fire truck. On April 22, 2023, there was an action on the Kurfürstendamm, where luxury boutiques were smeared with orange paint.
According to the court, these were not the only offenses the 32-year-old had committed. She had already been sentenced to fines by courts in Hamburg and Berlin for other actions of the climate group, the spokesperson noted. These fines were not included in the current sentence.
The sentence is harsher than recently pronounced judgments against other climate activists of the Last Generation. In April of this year, three activists of the Last Generation were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment on probation for a paint attack on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin due to joint damage to property. The judge noted that the accused had accepted the significant damage to a national symbol as a consequence of their action.
The international community has shown interest in the sentence given to the Last Generation activist in Berlin. Various climate protest groups worldwide have expressed solidarity with her cause.
Despite the harsh sentence, the Berlin activist's actions have contributed to raising awareness about climate change and the need for urgent policy changes, joining a series of climate protests worldwide.
