Climate activist Greta Thunberg fined again for protest in Sweden

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STOCKHOLM — A Swedish court on Wednesday fined climate activist Greta Thunberg once again for disobeying police during an environmental protest in July in southern Sweden.

The Malmo District Court ordered her to pay a 2,250 kroner ($206) fine.

Thunberg, who already had been fined for a similar offense, 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.

On Sept. 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-defense 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.

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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.

On Thursday, the Swede is due to travel to neighboring 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.