A CLIMATE change protester from Farnham has been fined £105 for her part in the London Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests.
Fiona Massari was sentenced at City of London Magistrates’ Court last Friday after pleading guilty to a breach of the Public Order Act.
She was discharged conditionally for six months and ordered to pay a fine of £105.
According to XR, she was one of more than 1,130 protesters arrested following the April protests.
Fiona said she pleaded guilty because she “did intentionally block the road to raise awareness of the emergency and I knew we were getting media attention”.
She added: “The government were about to meet Greta Thunberg and respond to the rebellion so I had decided it was important to try to stay on the bridge and show the authorities how many different people were willing to be arrested to demand urgent action.”
Fiona told the Herald she feels “very relieved” and added there were “lots of tears even from court clerks”.
“The judge was sympathetic and called all of us ‘well-informed, upright citizens’,” she said.
Fiona said XR Farnham is crowdfunding to cover the court costs, “to enable other rebels to be arrestable without too heavy a personal cost”.
XR is also now crowdfunding nationally to create a “central legal defence fund”, according to its online fundraising page, where more than £54,500 had been pledged when the Herald went to print.
She continued: “We are hoping this will serve to make others feel that making this small sacrifice might be worth it if we can get the government to take action now rather than believing some future date for divestment from fossil fuels is appropriate in the face of the emergency.”