Berlin — Germany's Cabinet has decided to tighten the country's Aviation Security Act in order to prevent radical climate activists and others from carrying out dangerous actions at airports.
"Anyone who trespasses on airport premises, glues themselves to taxiways and thus massively obstructs air traffic is not just risking their own life," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday. Such incidents are also dangerous for many bystanders.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing said that he hoped "this tightening of the law will deter activists and that there will be no disruptions during the current peak travelling season."
The core of the planned reform, which still has to be agreed by the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, is the creation of a new provision that makes "intentional, unauthorized intrusion" on an airport's tarmac and runways a punishable offence - if it impairs the safety of civil air traffic.
For example, anyone who cuts through a fence and then blocks a runway will in future face a prison sentence of up to two years, or a fine. Attempts will also be punishable. Previously, only a fine was due in such cases.
Intentional, unauthorized intrusion into the part of the airport that experts call the "airside" is to be punishable by up to five years in prison in future if someone is carrying a weapon or toxic substances or if the aim is to facilitate or conceal another criminal offence.
Unauthorized actions by climate activists have taken place at a number of German airports, including Munich and Berlin.
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