Greta Thunberg was indicted for disturbing public order for a demonstration on the sidelines of an oil and gas industry conference on Tuesday in London, London police announced on Wednesday October 18. The 20-year-old Swede, who was arrested by police on Tuesday, was released under judicial supervision and will appear in a London court on November 15, it is said. She is part of a group of 26 people prosecuted for this demonstration, in which several hundred protesters participated.
Formally, Greta Thunberg is indicted for not having complied with the police’s injunction not to block the street where this protest action took place against the holding – in a hotel in the wealthy district of Mayfair – of the Energy Intelligence Forum, which brings together the leaders of major hydrocarbon producing companies. It is accustomed to blocking actions, like in Malmö in Sweden, which earned it a fine a few days ago. In January, she was forcibly taken by police from a demonstration against the use of coal in Germany.
“Behind these closed doors (…) politicians without stature make agreements and compromises with lobbyists from the destructive fossil fuel sector,” Greta Thunberg denounced to the press on Tuesday morning before her arrest. The head of Saudi oil company Aramco, Amin Nasser, reiterated during the conference that “new investments” in hydrocarbons were needed to counter the decline of aging oil fields. The demonstrators also criticized the fact that the president of COP28, the annual United Nations climate conference scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, is none other than the head of the United Arab Emirates oil company, Sultan al-Jaber.