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Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg to face trial again

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will face court again at the end of September, charged with 'resisting arrest' at a protest.

Published: 15 September 2023 13:25 CEST

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg to face trial again

Greta Thunberg at a previous trial at Malmö District Court. Photo: Andreas Hillergren/TT

Police forcibly removed the 20-year-old campaigner from a climate rally in the Swedish port city on July 24th.

“The protest was unauthorised and led to traffic being blocked. The young woman refused to obey police order to leave the site,” said prosecutor Isabel Ekberg.

“This is therefore a case of refusal to comply.”

Hours before the July rally, Thunberg received a court fine after a short trial and conviction for disobeying police at a previous protest at the same port on June 19th.

The rally, organised by environmental activist group Reclaim the Future, tried to block the entrance and exit to the busy port to protest against the use of fossil fuels.

The date for Thunberg’s new trial has been set for September 27th.

The activist shot to global fame after starting her “School Strike for the Climate” in front of Sweden’s parliament in Stockholm at the age of 15.

In addition to her climate strikes, the young activist regularly lambasts governments and politicians for not properly addressing climate issues.

Member comments

Anonymous - 15 September 2023 at 21:10 CEST

Good for you Greta. I hope you can stay out of jail and continue your good work.

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Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

Jomshof told news site Kvartal’s podcast that he had been called to questioning on Tuesday next week, where he’s been told he is to be formally informed he is suspected of agitation against an ethnic or national group (hets mot folkggrupp), a hate crime.

Prosecutor Joakim Zander confirmed the news, but declined to comment further.

“I can confirm what Jomshof said. He is to be heard as suspected on reasonable grounds of agitation against an ethnic or national group,” he told the TT newswire.

“Suspected on reasonable grounds” (skäligen misstänkt) is Sweden’s lower degree of suspicion, compared to the stronger “probable cause” (på sannolika skäl misstänkt).

The investigation relates to posts by other accounts which Jomshof republished on the X platform on May 28th.

One depicts a Muslim refugee family who is welcomed in a house which symbolises Europe, only to set the house on fire and exclaim “Islam first”. The other shows a Pakistani refugee who shouts for help and is rescued by a boat which symbolises England. He then attacks the family who helped him with a bat labelled “rape jihad”, according to TT.

Jomshof has stepped down from his position as chair of the justice committee while he’s under investigation.

“I don’t want this to be about my chairmanship of the committee, I don’t want the parties we collaborate with to get these questions again about whether or not they have confidence in me, but I want this to be about the issue at hand,” he said.

“The issue is Islamism, if you may criticise it or not, and that’s about free speech.”

It’s not the first time Jomshof has come under fire for his comments on Islam.

Last year, he called the Prophet Mohammed a “warlord, mass murderer, slave trader and bandit” in another post on X, sparking calls from the opposition for his resignation.

The Social Democrats on Friday urged Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose Moderate-led government relies on the Sweden Democrats’ support, not to let Jomshof return to the post as chair of the justice committee.

“The prime minister is to be the prime minister for the people as a whole,” said Ardalan Shekarabi, the Social Democrat deputy chairman of the justice committee, adding that it was “sad” that Jomshof had ever been elected chairman in the first place.

“When his party supports a person with clear extremist opinions, on this post, there’s no doubt that the cohesion of our society is damaged and that the government parties don’t stand up against hate and agitation,” TT quoted Shekarabi as saying.

Liberal party secretary Jakob Olofsgård, whose party is a member of the government but is seen as the coalition party that’s the furthest from the Sweden Democrats, wrote in a comment to TT: “I can say that I think it is reasonable that Richard Jomshof chooses to quit as chairman of the justice committee pending this process.”

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