Climate activist Deanne ‘Violet’ Coco was freed on Tuesday after spending 10 days in Silverwater Women’s Prison, seven of which were in isolation, City Hub's Wendy Bacon reports.
Coco was the first person to receive a prison sentence under the new laws. Four other climate activists have been sentenced to prison for other protest offences in NSW this year. There are more than twenty other climate activists arrested under the new anti-protest laws who could also face time in prison.
Australian Conservation Foundation, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Community Legal Centres NSW, Oxfam, Unions NSW, Amnesty International, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Climate Council of Australia, Human Rights Law Centre, the Wilderness Society, Pride in Protest are just a few of the organisations that have joined one of the biggest progressive coalitions formed since the Vietnam Moratoriums in the early 1970s.
NSWCCL President Josh Pallas who helped bring the organisations together told City Hub, “While unjust laws which have led to the incarceration of peaceful protesters should never have been passed, they presented an opportunity to galvanise and bring together civil society in defence of the right to protest. … my hope is that this loose coalition continues to grow and defend the right to protest as more people are unjustly brought before the courts.”
For more infomation, read the full article.