Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is being sued by her country’s courts. The activist is accused of a “refusal to comply”, which she allegedly committed during an action carried out in mid-June in the port of Malmö, in southern Sweden, the Swedish prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday.
“The public prosecutor has brought charges against a young woman who, on June 19, took part in a climate demonstration (disrupting) traffic in Malmö. The young woman refused to obey police orders (requesting her) to leave the site,” the statement read. Contacted by AFP, the prosecution confirmed that it was Greta Thunberg.
In mid-June, the activist, now 20, took part in an action alongside the organization Ta tillbaka framtiden (“Demand the future”) at the port of Malmö, whose activists blocked the entrance and the exit to protest against the use of fossil fuels by immobilizing oil tankers.
“We are choosing not to be bystanders, and […] [thereby] physically shutting down fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future,” Greta Thunberg said in an Instagram post at the time.
The activist faces up to six months in prison, but prosecutor Charlotte Ottosen told the Swedish daily Sydsvenskan that this charge usually results in a fine. A hearing is scheduled at the Malmö court at the end of July, according to the media.
At the time unknown, Greta Thunberg was only 15 when she first sat down outside the Swedish Parliament on a Friday in August 2018, with her “School strike for climate” sign. In a few months, from Berlin to Sydney, from San Francisco to Johannesburg, young people followed suit 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 blasted the leaders’ “unprecedented betrayal” after the publication of the latest summary of the IPCC, the UN’s group of climate experts.