The trial was due to continue this afternoon, starting at 2:30 pm, but the strike by court employees led to the suspension of the hearing, which will resume on Tuesday at 9:30 am.

The environmentalists, mostly young people who are accused of the crimes of "disruption of communications" and "civil disobedience", for events that occurred in December 2023, were identified by the criminal court of first instance and expressed their intention to make statements, but, when it was realized that each of them wanted to read a manifesto against people and companies responsible for the environmental collapse, the judge prevented them from doing so, as it was outside the scope of the process.

"This is not a climate trial, it is about facts that occurred in a protest", explained the judge, alluding to the roadblock carried out by the activists and the alleged disobedience of the order to disperse from the avenue that would have been given by the PSP agents called to the scene. The defense of the defendants still argued that the "process has to do with climate issues", but the judge did not accept the reading of manifestos in defense of the climate outside the scope of the process.

Questioned about the facts that led to the blockade of Avenida Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco, in which two activists hung from ropes from the viaduct of the same name, while others crossed the road, preventing traffic from circulating, the activists admitted to having been at the scene, but they referred to the silence about many of the questions that were asked by the prosecutor and the judge, possibly avoiding incriminating themselves in the face of the pending accusation.

However, they were all unanimous in claiming that they did not hear the "order to disperse" from the PSP agents to leave the public road, a question that could be fundamental for the court to determine with precision if the crime of disobedience occurred.

The court also heard as witnesses three PSP agents, who, in the courtroom, pointed out the defendants with whom they interacted on the day of the blockade, but who had difficulty identifying one by one the activists to whom they expressly gave the order to disperse from the scene.

The three PSP agents, however, expressed their conviction that all the activists heard the order to disperse, in addition to the crimes they would be committing, also because they heard each other, but the difficulty in pointing out individually to whom they expressly gave the order raised doubts for the defense and the judge himself as to whether all the defendants had or had not heard such an order from the police to leave the road.

These doubts led, at the proposal of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the court to appoint a new witness, PSP agent Ana Coelho, who will also have given the order to disperse, but the strike by court employees prevented her questioning this afternoon.

At the end of the morning session of the trial, the activist and defendant Maria Mesquita, as spokesperson for the others, criticized the fact that the judge did not allow the defendants to make statements in defense of the climate, claiming that it was important to explain that "the motivation" behind the road blockade was to fight and alert society to the collapse and climate crisis that puts people's lives and those of their families at risk.

According to Maria Mesquita, what the activists did "was not an act of vandalism", but a way of drawing attention to the problem of the climate crisis and the need for a "war declared" against the companies that are killing the planet.

The activist reiterated that Climáximo will continue its protest actions and that the "April Assemblies" created by the movement will debate this week what the priorities and measures to be taken in defense of the environment are.

[News updated at 3:32 pm]

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