Greenpeace Activists Charged Over Protest at PM Sunak’s Home

February 20, 2024 Hour: 11:13 am

On Tuesday, Rosemary Ainslie, the head of the Crime Division of the British Prosecutor’s Office, announced that three Greenpeace activists who participated in a protest at one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s residences have been charged with causing criminal damage.

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Mathieu Soete, 38; Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, and Alexandra Wilson, 32, were part of the group of four people who climbed onto the roof of his house in North Yorkshire. This protest act was carried out in rejection of Sunak’s support for a major expansion of oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

“After reviewing the evidence provided by the Yorkshire Police, we have authorized criminal charges against one man and two women following a protest at the Prime Minister’s residence, Rishi Sunak, on August 3, 2023,” Ainslie confirmed, adding that the Greenpeace activists will appear before a British court on March 21.

“The activists have now been formally charged with criminal damage for carrying out a completely peaceful protest,” activist Ami McCarthy said, adding that Greenpeace “will dispute the charges and the insufficient basis on which they are based.”

VIDEO: Activists from Greenpeace scale UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s constituency home and cover it with black fabric to protest against his fossil fuel policy. Sunak this week gave the green light to hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea pic.twitter.com/A3mLr8U0w1

— AFP News Agency (@AFP)
August 4, 2023

The activists then used ladders and ropes to climb the mansion, and once on the roof, they unfurled a 200-square-meter cloth to cover part of the house.

Additionally, two Greenpeace members unfurled a banner with the message “Rishi Sunak – Oil Profits or Our Future?” on the property’s lawn.

Sunak has been criticized by organizations fighting the climate crisis for giving the green light to plans to offer a hundred new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea.

#RT @Greenpeace: RT @telesurenglish: Canada using violence to clear way for corporate pipelines. https://t.co/QzizoZWvXG

— European Eco Warrior (@EuroEcoWarrior)
January 9, 2019