In a major development, climate activist Greta Thunberg, on Wednesday, charged after she was arrested during a Fossil Free London protest, BBC reported. According to Met Police, the 20-year-old is accused of breaching a Section 14 order that police put in place outside the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane where oil executives were meeting on Tuesday. The Malmo District Court ordered her to pay a 2,250 kroner ($206) fine.
Thunberg, who already had been fined for a similar offence, took part in a July 24 environmental protest at an oil terminal in Malmo, where activists temporarily blocked access to the facility by sitting down and were removed by police.
Why Thunberg was arrested?
On September 15, she was charged with disobedience to law enforcement for refusing to obey police asking her to leave the scene. She then was dragged away by two uniformed officers.
Thunberg, 20, has admitted to the facts but denied guilt, saying the fight against the fossil fuel industry was a form of self-defence due to the existential and global threat of the climate crisis.
”We have the science on our side and we have morality on our side. Nothing in the world can change that and so it is. I am ready to act based on the conditions that exist and whether it leads to more sentences,” she said after the verdict.
On June 24, the same court fined her 2,500 kronor (about $230) for refusing to obey police orders when taking part in a similar demonstration the previous month where she and others blocked access to the same oil terminal days earlier and were removed by police.
What do climate activists say?
On Thursday, the Swede is due to travel to neighbouring Norway to take part in a protest with activists, including Indigenous Sami. They’re protesting a wind farm of 151 turbines and want it removed because they say it endangers the reindeer herders’ way of life. The activists say a transition to green energy shouldn’t come at the expense of the rights of Indigenous people.
Two years ago, Norway’s Supreme Court ruled that the construction of the turbines had violated the rights of the Sami, who have used the land for reindeer for centuries. The Norwegian government has no plans to remove the wind farm. Thunberg inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish Parliament starting in 2018.
(With inputs from agency)
Also Read: Climate activist Greta Thunberg detained in Germany over coal village protests
