Activist Greta Thunberg defied police orders to maneuver throughout a local weather demonstration, prosecutors instructed a London court docket on Thursday, on the primary day of her two-day trial for public order offences.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court docket in central London heard that police gave the 21-year-old Swedish campaigner a “final warning” to maneuver from outdoors the doorway of the London resort internet hosting the Power Intelligence Discussion board in October.
Prosecutor Luke Staton instructed court docket, “She said that she was staying where she was and so she was arrested.”
Greta Thunberg, who faces a most effective of £2,500 ($3,177), was taken away by two cops and put into the again of a van outdoors after she joined the mass protest.
She was one in every of dozens of local weather activists arrested for disrupting entry to the convention, which introduced collectively main oil and gasoline firms at a luxurious resort within the British capital on October 17.
Demonstrators greeted the discussion board contributors with cries of “Shame on you!” whereas carrying placards studying “Stop Rosebank”, a reference to a controversial new North Sea oil subject that the federal government authorised in September.
Police arrested Greta Thunberg for failing to stick to an order to not block the road the place the rally was happening, with Staton telling court docket that folks had been unable to get into the resort.
She was launched on bail however then took half in one other demonstration in entrance of the five-star resort the subsequent day, together with a whole bunch of different folks.
Greta Thunberg, a worldwide determine within the struggle towards local weather change, pleaded not responsible to the costs at an preliminary listening to in November, as did 4 different activists who’re her co-defendants.
They had been amongst dozens of activists arrested for disrupting entry to the convention.
‘Combined messages’
Supporters had been already gathered outdoors court docket on Thursday when Greta Thunberg arrived round an hour earlier than the ten:00 am (1000 GMT) begin of her trial.
They held giant yellow indicators studying “fossil free London” and “climate protest is not a crime” as Greta Thunberg, carrying a gray coat, and her fellow defendants made their method by the throng.
Maja Darlington, campaigner at Greenpeace UK, mentioned the activists had been on trial “for peacefully protesting” whereas oil executives had been “celebrating making billions from selling climate-wrecking fossil fuels”.
“The prosecution of Greta and other peaceful protesters reflects a government that cares more about bolstering the profits of oil bosses than fighting for a liveable future for all of us,” she added.
The Conservative authorities’s reversals on its pledges to fight local weather change have angered campaigners.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has postponed a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles and introduced plans to grant new licences to drill for oil and gasoline within the North Sea.
The British voters, which votes in a normal election this 12 months, is going through an inflation-fuelled cost-of-living disaster.
On Monday, the UK’s unbiased advisory physique on local weather technique expressed concern that the federal government was sending out “mixed messages” that had been tarnishing its worldwide affect on the problem.
Greta Thunberg, who got here to worldwide consideration as a 15-year-old by staging faculty strikes in her native Sweden, frequently takes half in such demonstrations.
She was fined in October for blocking the port of Malmo in Sweden, just a few months after being forcibly eliminated by police throughout an indication towards the usage of coal in Germany.
She additionally joined a march final weekend in southern England to protest towards the growth of Farnborough airport, which is principally utilized by personal jets.
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