Climate activists who stuck to a plane in Lisbon are free (but the group faces €9,000 in fines)
The Public Ministry (MP) closed the investigation into the protest by Climáximo environmental activists that took place a year ago at Humberto Delgado airport, in Lisbon, in which they glued themselves to a plane, the group revealed this Saturday.
In a statement, the Climáximo group celebrated the shelving of this investigation, considering that “it is a clear example that judicial repression of those who fight for everyone’s lives is an option for the system, with alternatives”.
The police forces, judges and the MP “have in their hands the possibility” of choosing between “continuing to maintain a system that is at war with society and the planet or refusing to consent to a device of destruction”, they stated .
However, Climáximo regretted that the group had “more than nine thousand euros in fines to pay” and that some of its members had been given “suspended sentences of more than a year”, with both cases resulting from convictions for protests.
On the morning of October 18, 2023, activists from the group glued themselves to a TAP plane that was going to connect between Lisbon and Porto, in a protest against greenhouse gas emissions from short-haul flights and to appeal to the use of other means of public public transport.
In the archiving order, which Lusa had access to today, it can be read that “it does not appear that, at any time, the commander, who is the authority on board the aircraft, nor the PSP agents have committed [ameaçado] any of those now accused of committing the crime of disobedience, therefore they did not commit it”.
“It turns out that the spontaneous demonstration did not occur in a public place, nor in fact in such a way as to raise the need to regulate the circulation of vehicles and pedestrians, which is the reason for the obligation of prior communication” to the chamber, he highlighted.
The MP further claimed that “the plane does not fit, as a ‘place’, within the legal provisions” and, as the spontaneous demonstration was carried out in that means of transport, the defendants “did not commit any crime”.
According to the MP’s order, the Climáximo group consisted of six people, but only one of them used a tube of glue that he put in his hands and tried to position himself at the door of the aircraft, which was then removed by the police authorities.
The plane’s commander, according to the document, called the police authorities for refusing to transport these people, which is why they were removed, and the door closing and take-off procedures continued, without any incident.
The environmental activists were accused of having committed a crime of disobedience, related to the lack of prior communication of the protest to the Lisbon City Council, as mentioned in the order.
