Climate gluer of the “last generation” risks a long prison term

A “last generation” climate activist has been fined 1,000 euros by the Tiergarten court for participating in a road blockade in Berlin. However, because she has indicated that she does not want to pay fines and because a number of other proceedings are pending against her, Sonja M. risks a long prison sentence. She will not pay any money to the state and thus “continue to co-finance the fossil-so,” the woman said. She’d rather go to jail.

Thursday’s trial was over M’s involvement in a highway blockade in February 2022. As she admitted in court, she had her bare foot tied to a motorway exit on the A100 at Spandauer Damm. She had appealed against a criminal order and therefore a court hearing was held.

At the beginning of the trial, M. stated that she had received six writs of injunction totaling about 10,000 euros. This corresponds to approximately 250 daily rates of various amounts. If M. does not pay the fines, she will face 250 days in prison. However, this number is likely to increase significantly: according to its own statements, it has been involved in about 40 roadblocks so far.

During the trial, M. and her lawyer Mathis Bönte tried to justify the “last generation” roadblocks as a necessary measure in the fight against the climate crisis. M., in his mid-40s, a full-time church musician and mother of a 15-year-old daughter, repeatedly used the fire alarm analogy. She listed the legal means of protest she had used for decades to get things done. Now she is sounding the alarm louder because, given the climate catastrophe, she sees no other option.

Bönte tried to acquit his client by referring to paragraph 40 of the Criminal Code. This refers to the so-called “justified emergency”. Whoever commits an act in an “inevitable danger to life and limb” to avert this danger, is not acting unlawfully. This is the case with the roadblocks in view of the climate crisis, according to Bönte.

This is not a new argument in processes of climate activism. And it’s not entirely wrong, as a recent judgment in Flensburg shows. There, the court acquitted a tree cracker of entering the site, but deemed this proven. Reason: The protection of the climate as an overriding legal interest justified the habitation of the tree.

The judge of the Tiergarten court did not follow this argument and ordered M. to pay 40 daily rates of 25 euros each. She even exceeded the 30 day rates demanded by the prosecutor. The actions are not justified by the state of emergency as they would not clearly contribute to its elimination, the judge said. “To stick with your analogy, a fire alarm won’t help against a fire at all. It must be removed,” she told the accused.

The judge went further: “What you achieve is division in society, is blind hatred.” The “last generation” is holding “hundreds of drivers” hostage with their blockades. Then she surprised them with a tip: she recently saw an article about the importance of moorland for climate protection and how they were managed with water buffalo. «My recommendation: do it in water buffalo. You can really achieve something there,” said the judge. The defendant and her supporters in the room reacted by shaking their heads.

In an interview with t-online, M. subsequently described the verdict as “nonsense”. The court did not address the need to fight the climate crisis. Her decision to go to jail rather than pay a fine is clear. That’s what she told her 15-year-old daughter. “She doesn’t like it, and neither do I. But I don’t see any other option at the moment,” said M.