HUNDREDS of people surrounded the Court of Appeal today as judges were urged to prevent street violence following the jailing of 16 Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists who had exercised their legal right to peaceful protest.

Environmentalists were handed the harshest sentences of their kind in modern British history last year after being refused protections under freedom of expression and assembly rights, the court heard.

The jailed activists had taken part in some of Britain’s highest profile climate protests, including climbing on gantries over the M25 and throwing soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery.