Page 17 - IAV Digital Magazine #631

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3 British 'Just Stop Oil' Activists Acquitted Over Stonehenge Spraypaint
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAJ6-zjWXX0
By Chris Benson
Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Three activists with "Just Stop Oil" were acquitted Friday by a British court for spraypainting Britain's ancient Stonehenge site.
Following a 10-day trial at Salisbury Crown Court, Oxford University student Niamh Lynch, Rajan Naidu and Luke Watson
were acquitted on charges of causing a pub- lic nuisance.
Naidu, 74, and Lynch, 23, along with Watson, 36, were taken into custody last summer after spray- painting the ancient site at Stonehenge -- the prehis- toric megalithic structure -- the color orange to protest the country's ongoing use of fossil fuels.
Stonehenge sits in
southern England roughly 88 miles southwest of the country's capital London.
The incident took place as thousands were expected to descend on the area the next day for the sum- mer solstice, the earliest in 228 years since 1796.
The three climate activists denied all charges in the ongoing global protest against use of fossil fuels.
They cited "reasonable excuse" in their defense under articles of free speech part of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"If individuals disagree with what our government is doing on certain matters they are entitled to
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