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Police officers with Thunberg on the sidelines of the protest in June: Seated to reclaim the future?
Photo: Johan Nilsson / dpa
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is facing trial for her conduct during a protest. Charges have been brought against her for allegedly refusing to comply with police orders at a climate protest in Malmö.
Thunberg had taken part in the action organized by the environmental group Ta tillbaka framtiden (Reclaiming the Future) in June. Activists tried to block the entrances and exits of the oil port of Malmö. The participants were protesting against the use of fossil fuels. Thunberg is said to have refused to leave the site of the blockade at the time.
She had reported on the protest herself on social networks and, among other things, posted a picture of herself in front of a truck holding a sign with the inscription "Jag blockerar tankbilar" ("I block tankers") in her hands.
Carried away by police
When the disruption to traffic had become too great, the police asked the demonstrators to sit off on a lawn, as the regional newspaper »Sydsvenskan « reported. Some of the activists complied, but several did not. These were carried away by the police – as photos also showed Thunberg.
According to Sydsvenskan, Thunberg is expected to face a fine, with a court date scheduled for the end of July. Under Swedish criminal law, "failure to comply with police orders" can theoretically be punished with up to six months in prison. Prosecutor Charlotte Ottesen told Sydsvenskan, however, that the offense is usually sanctioned with a fine.
As a 15-year-old, Thunberg began to sit in front of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm on Fridays during school hours and thus demonstrate for more effective climate protection measures. In just a few months, their weekly strike expanded into the global protest movement Fridays for Future. Thunberg ended her school strikes in June, as she had graduated.
The young activist regularly harshly denounces governments for not doing enough to combat global warming. At the end of March, after the publication of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), she spoke of "unprecedented betrayal" by international politics. Those in power were "actively moving in the wrong direction."
apr/dpa/AFP