LONDON: UK prosecutors on Thursday defended lengthy prison sentences handed down to 16 environmental activists, telling London´s Court of Appeal that their actions posed a danger to the public.

The activists with the Just Stop Oil (JSO) group last year received prison terms of between 15 months and five years for several stunts, including throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh´s “Sunflowers” in London and blocking the M25 motorway around the UK capital.

They have appealed the length of their sentences, but prosecutors told the court on Thursday that “each of the judges were right” as “all of these applicants went so far beyond what was reasonable”. Their actions also presented an “extreme danger” to the public, they said.