Greta Thunberg in court over disobeying police at protest

DW

Swedish climate activist will appear in court on Monday, for the last month.

Thunberg and other activists were detained for disrupting traffic in the oil terminal port in Malmo to protest against fossil fuel use. They blocked the entrance and the exit of the southern Swedish city’s harbor. 

According to the charge sheet filed against Thunberg, she “took part in a demonstration that disrupted traffic” and “refused to obey police orders to leave the site.”

Greta may have to pay fine

Charges for disobeying police can carry sentences of up to six months in jail, but Prosecutor Charlotte Ottosen told Swedish media most end in fines.

Ta tillbaka framtiden, which means Reclaim the Future, is the environmental activist group that organized the rally, which lasted for several days.

“If the court chooses to see our action as a crime it may do so, but we know we have the right to live and the fossil fuels industry stands in the way of that,” the group’s spokesperson Irma Kjellstrom told AFP news agency. 

Six other organization members would also be appearing in the court in Malmo, she said. 

Thunberg has been the face of the youth climate movement since inspiring the Friday’s For Future protests, which grew out of her first solo School Strikes events at the Swedish Parliament at age 15. She has spoken frankly about the urgency of the climate crisis to activists and government and business leaders ever since.

In March, she harangued those leaders for their “unprecedented betrayal,” after the publication of the UN’s IPCC climate advisory panel annual report.

ara/fb (AFP, AP)

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