A London court dropped, this Friday the 2nd, the charges against environmental activist Greta Thunberg, accused of disturbing public order in a demonstration against the hydrocarbon industry, last October, in the British capital.
On the second and final day of the hearing, the Westminster Court of First Instance judge ruled that the police officers who accused the 21-year-old Swedish environmental activist of contempt had imposed “illegal” conditions without being precise in expressing their instructions.
The judge responsible for the case, John Law, considered that the conditions were “unjustifiably imposed” by the police on the activists at the demonstration site.
According to the judge’s opinion, other measures “were available and could have been implemented”. Therefore, he added, anyone who did not respect those rules imposed by the agents “did not commit a crime”.
On Thursday, the first day of the hearing, the prosecutor stated that Thunberg defied the order not to block the street where a protest was taking place against the Energy Intelligence Forum, in the London neighborhood of Mayfair, which was attended by executives from the main energy companies. gas and oil.
Prosecutor’s accusation
The Swedish activist “said she would stay where she was, and that’s why she was detained,” said prosecutor Luke Staton, on the first day of the hearing.
Thunberg pleaded not guilty at a first hearing, in November, before another London court, for the events that occurred on October 17.
The young woman, who gained global notoriety with her “school strikes for the climate”, which began when she was 15 years old, was at risk of paying a fine of up to 2,500 pounds ($3,172 or 15,651 reais at current exchange rates) for the actions she was accused.
Another 25 people, also detained in that mid-October demonstration and prosecuted for the same reason, were released.
On the first day of the trial, the environmental activist asked to identify the “real enemy” of the environment.
“Environmental activists are prosecuted all over the world for acting according to their conscience. We have to remember who the real enemy is,” Thunberg said.
The environmental NGO Greenpeace celebrated the British court’s decision.
“The verdict is a victory for the freedom to speak out. It is ridiculous that more and more climate activists are being tried for peacefully exercising their right to protest, while companies like Shell stand to make billions from selling fossil fuels that are destructive to the climate,” said Greenpeace.