Climate protestor Deanna “Violet” Coco has been granted bail after she was sentenced to 15 months in jail for blocking a single lane on the Sydney Harbour Bridge back in April.
Coco had been initially denied bail when she was first sentenced in early December. But district court judge Timothy Gartelmann granted her bail on December 13.
According to The Guardian, the Department of Public Prosecutions objected to Coco being granted bail. The DPP’s lawyer Nicholas Leach argued there was a risk she might not show up to her sentencing appeal and claimed releasing her might mean an “endangerment” to the community ‘cos of her protest history.
Gartelmann said he wasn’t satisfied Coco posed an “unacceptable risk” to the community, but did include quite a few conditions for Coco’s bail.
A big one is that she isn’t allowed within a kilometre of the Sydney Harbour Bridge till December 29, per The Sydney Morning Herald. She’ll also be living at an address in Lismore and isn’t allowed to come into greater Sydney unless she’s at court.
The judge said he wasn’t determining whether the OG jail sentence was “appropriate”. But he did give some insight into what could potentially happen at her appeal hearing in March.
“It is far from inevitable that a sentence of full-time imprisonment will be imposed on hearing of that appeal,” he said.
Coco’s sentencing has been met with criticism and protests. According to The Guardian, Greens MP Sue Higginson was in the court room when Coco’s bail was granted.
Violet Coco now released on bail. She shouldn’t have been in prison. The Coalition & Labor have gone too far with their antiprotest laws. Violet isn’t a criminal she’s a conscientious objector, she engaged in an act of civil disobedience. She’s worried about climate change#nswpol pic.twitter.com/JEIFexW6wt
— Sue Higginson (@SueHigginson_) December 13, 2022
Coco was sentenced under new NSW protest laws, which mean people who block major bridges, ports and roads can face $22,000 fines or a two year prison sentence.
The news of her sentencing in early December was tweeted by Human Rights Watch’s Sophie McNeill, who slammed the decision as “outrageous”.
Coco was sentenced to 15 months, with eight months of no parole.
Outrageous decision just now in a Sydney court
Climate activist Violet Coco given 15 month sentence, 8 months no parole after she blocked 1 lane of the Harbour Bridge for 25 mins in April
It’s clear climate protesters are being targeted for disproportionate punishment @hrw pic.twitter.com/NMpJvEB3Dt
— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) December 2, 2022
Coco was part of an April protest by Firepoof Australia which shut down a lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The protest lasted for about 25 minutes.
She and three others were arrested and taken to Day Street Police Station, per 9News.
Coco has been involved in a number of other protests before with Fireproof Australia and also Extinction Rebellion.
At one point during the protest she lit an emergency flare while standing on top of a parked Fireproof Australia truck.
According to The Herald Sun, Coco plead guilty to seven charges including interfering with the safe operation of a bridge and possessing a bright light distress signal in a public place.
For what it’s worth, soccer fans legit set off flares in Melbourne’s Federation Square the same week Coco was sentenced when the Socceroos beat Denmark in the World Cup.
In court before her sentencing Coco’s lawyer, Mark Davis, made the case that the protestors only blocked one of Sydney Harbour Bridge’s five lanes.
“It was a deliberate decision to only block one lane,” he said.
He also brought up Coco’s experience of climate anxiety.
“There may be an overwhelming threat of doom, they sense they aren’t being heard, the government isn’t doing enough, it’s leading to these types of actions,” he said.
At the time Magistrate Allison Hawkins said; “you knew this was illegal, you knew you would be arrested and you knew there would be consequences”.
She described the protest as a “childish stunt” and claimed Coco didn’t take into account the effect on other people, saying she let an “entire city suffer”.
“You do damage to your cause when you do childish stunts like this. Why should they be disrupted by your selfish, emotional actions?” she said, per The Herald Sun.
Hawkins told Coco she was a “criminal” not a “political prisoner”.
I can think of one thing more disruptive than having your morning commute delayed by 25 minutes: the end of a liveable world ‘cos of the climate crisis.
Human Rights Watch has previously asserted NSW authorities are “disproportionately punishing” climate protestors. In a June 2022 piece, the organisation interviewed Coco and two other Australian climate protestors.
“The authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales are disproportionately punishing climate protestors in violation of their basic rights to peaceful protest,” it said.
Coco’s sentence isn’t without precedent either. A 22-year-old Blockade Australia protestor from Newcastle was sentenced to 12 months in prison in November 2021.
Scary stuff.
