A Vatican court on June 12 handed down a nine-month suspended sentence to two environmental activists who glued themselves to an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums in a protest over climate change.
Guido Viero and Ester Goffi, members of the Italian environmental activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation), were convicted of aggravated damage and were also ordered to pay 28,148 euros ($30,390) in restitution and another 1,620 euros ($1,749) in individual fines.
A third activist on trial with them who filmed the incident, Laura Zorzini, was fined 120 euros ($130).
Viero and Goffi went on trial in the Vatican City following the August 2022 protest during which they glued themselves to the base of the Laocoön statue, one of the most important ancient works in the Vatican Museum’s collection, in a bid to pressure the government to bolster its solar and wind power and scrap plans to drill for natural gas and reopen coal mines….