There are currently several courtcases going on prosecuting Stop HS2 activists, whilst HS2 Limited recently announced that their chief executive earned £659,000 last year, making him the highest paid UK government official. The board of directors got £1.6m remuneration in total … and this was all paid for by our taxes!?

Instead of this greed and corruption being investigated, at the end of July young tree protector Jellytot faced charges at Birmingham High Court for allegedly breaking an injunction seventeen times. Defending ancient woodland in Warwickshire is the alleged crime!

HS2 Limited are pushing for a prison sentence for trespass, which HS2 Rebellion has called “draconian & totally disproportionate”. A TINAAR (This is not about a railway) blogpost stated “These injunctions are not only a violation of a lawful right to protest. They are another example of how our supposed criminal justice system and government over and over again bow to the will of corporations and business and sell out the people they are supposed to protect.” Representing Jellytot, Andrew Wagner raised concerns with the court about the injunction’s unjust nature, since it was not properly served and the area covered was altered over time. Wagner asked a high court enforcement agent “Your officers use violence don’t they?”.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Smith, heard Jellytot speak to deny the charge of breaching the injunction earlier this year. Referring to one alleged breach, the judge asked “This looks really quite dangerous – you really feel that strongly about preventing HS2 that you put yourself in physical danger?” and Jellytot answered “Yes, I didn’t think about the danger I just thought ‘this machine is going to cut down trees so I will do what I can to stop it'”.

The hearing was postponed for further submissions until September, dates to be confirmed.

Report drawn from various sources including This is not about a railway [http://tinaar.com/we-are-jellytot/], @HS2Rebellion [https://twitter.com/Hs2Rebellion] and mainstream media.