Activist Greta Thunberg accused of climate protest in Sweden
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been charged with disobeying the police. (To file)
Stockholm:
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been charged with disobeying police during a June climate protest in southern Sweden, media reported on Wednesday, most likely risking a fine.
The charge of ‘disobeying a police order’ was brought against the 20-year-old activist after she refused police instructions to leave the scene of a protest in the southern city of Malmö in mid-June , according to the newspaper Sydsvenskan.
Ms Thunberg had joined the demonstration organized by the group of environmental activists ‘Ta tillbaka framtiden’ (Reclaiming the future) as they tried to block the entrance and exit to the port of Malmö to protest against the use of fossil fuels.
“We choose not to be bystanders and physically shut down fossil fuel infrastructure. We reclaim the future,” Greta Thunberg said in an Instagram post at the time.
The charge can at most carry a six-month prison sentence, but prosecutor Charlotte Ottesen told Sydsvenskan that normally carries a fine.
A hearing in Malmo District Court is scheduled for late July, the newspaper said.
Greta Thunberg was only 15 when she started her “school strike for the climate” in front of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm.
She and a small group of young people founded the Fridays for Future movement, which quickly became a global phenomenon.
In addition to her climate strikes, the young activist regularly lambastes governments and politicians for not properly addressing climate issues.
At the end of March, she denounced what she called “unprecedented betrayal” by leaders after the publication of the latest report by the IPCC, the UN’s climate advisory group.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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