Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was charged with “refusal to comply” after an action in mid-June at the port of Malmo in southern Sweden, the Swedish prosecutor said on Wednesday.
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“Prosecutors have brought charges against a young woman who took part in a climate demonstration in Malmö on June 19 and disrupted traffic. “The young woman refused to follow police instructions and asked her to leave the premises,” the statement said. Prosecutors contacted by AFP confirmed that it was Greta Thunberg.
In mid-June, 20-year-old Greta Thunberg, together with the organization “Ta tillbaka framtiden” (“Claim for the future”), took part in an action in the port of Malmö, whose activists blocked the entrance and exit in protest against the use of fossil fuels Fuels from decommissioning of oil tankers.
“We choose not to be bystanders and … physically shut down fossil fuel infrastructure. We’re reclaiming the future,” Greta Thunberg said in an Instagram post.
The activist faces up to six months in prison, but prosecutor Charlotte Ottosen told the Swedish daily Sydsvenskan that such charges usually carry a fine.
According to the daily, a hearing before the court in Malmö is planned for the end of July.
At the time, unknown at the time, Greta Thunberg was only 15 years old when she first sat down in front of the Swedish parliament on a Friday in August 2018 with her sign “School strike for the climate”.
In a few months, young people from Berlin to Sydney, from San Francisco to Johannesburg followed, and the Fridays for Future movement was born.
Beyond her climate strikes, the young activist regularly attacks politicians and governments for their inaction on climate issues.
At the end of March, she castigated the “unprecedented betrayal” of the heads of state and government after the publication of the latest summary of the IPCC, the UN expert group on climate.