Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been cleared of disorderly conduct charges at last year’s protest over police misconduct.
Ms Thunberg, 21, was one of dozens of people arrested in October outside a London hotel on the first day of the Energy Intelligence Forum, where executives from Shell and Total were due to speak. Four other people aged between 19 and 59 were accused of disobeying a police order to move the protest to a designated area near the conference.
Nevertheless, the judge stressed that the protest was “throughout peaceful, civilised and non-violent” and criticised evidence provided by the prosecution:
“It is quite striking to me that there were no witness statements taken from anyone in the hotel, approximately 1,000 people, or from anyone trying to get in.”
On Friday, a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court acquitted her of a charge of breaching the Public Order Act.
“Even though we are the ones standing here, climate, environmental and human rights activists all around the world are being prosecuted, sometimes convicted and being given penalties for acting in line with science,” Ms Thunberg said on Thursday when she left court.
