Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been fined for the second time in three months for disobeying police orders during a protest against fossil fuels in July. The Malmo District Court ordered her to pay a fine of 4,500 Swedish crowns ($413) on Wednesday, adding to the previous fine of 2,500 crowns ($230) she received in June for a similar offense.
Thunberg, 20, 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 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.
Thunberg inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish Parliament starting in 2018. She was part of a group that temporarily blocked access to an oil terminal.