Greta Thunberg has been forcibly removed by police from a climate protest in the southern Swedish city of Malmo – just hours after a local court fined her for disobeying a police order during a similar protest last month.
Thunberg, 20, admitted during the court proceedings that she had disobeyed the police order but pleaded not guilty and said that she was acting out of necessity.
“It is absurd that those who act in line with science should pay the price for it,” she told reporters in the Malmo district court.
The climate activist admitted to the facts of the case but said the fight against the fossil fuel industry was a form of self-defence due to the existential and global threat of the climate crisis.
“I believe that we are in an emergency that threatens life, health and property. Countless people and communities are at risk both in the short term and in the long term,” she said.
“We cannot save the world by playing by the rules,” she told reporters after the verdict, vowing she would “definitely not” back down.
Charges were brought against Thunberg and several other youth activists from the Reclaim the Future movement for refusing a police order to disperse after blocking road access to an oil terminal in Malmo on 19 June.
Thunberg had posted on Instagram during the protest saying: “The climate crisis is already a matter of life and death for countless people.
“We choose to not be bystanders, and instead physically stop the fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future.”
The court ordered Thunberg to pay 1,500 Swedish crowns (£112) and an additional 1,000 crowns to Sweden's fund for crime victims. The fine was applied in proportion to her reported income. Failure to obey a police order carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
Greta Thunberg waits at the district court in Malmo on Monday— (Tom Little/Reuters)
“If the court sees our actions of self-defence as a crime, that's how it is,” said Irma Kjellström, a spokesperson for Reclaim the Future who was also present at the June protest. She added that activists “have to be exactly where the harm is being done.”
Earlier in the year, Thunberg was briefly detained by police in Oslo during a protest against wind farms built on indigenous land in Norway. She was also detained during protests against the demolition of the coal village of Luetzerath in Germany in January.
The activist inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight the climate crisis after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament starting in 2018 – they were known as school strikes.
Thunberg took part in her last such protest in June, tweeting at the time: “Today, I graduate from school, which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate. This is then the last school strike for me.”
“We who can speak up have a duty to do so. In order to change everything, we need everyone,” she added. “The fight has only just begun.”
