Environmental activist Greta Thunberg was acquitted in a London court Friday after being arrested during a climate protest in October. The 20-year-old Swede was arrested last year alongside four other protesters at London’s InterContinental Park Lane hotel, where they were demonstrating outside a meeting of oil and gas bigwigs at the 2023 Energy Intelligence Forum. Thunberg was charged with a public order violation after allegedly defying police orders to move the protest to a specific designated demonstration area outside the conference. Judge John Law dismissed the case against her on the grounds of police overreach; he said that the restrictions placed on the protesters by the London police were unduly severe and unclear. According to Law, there was not sufficient evidence provided by the prosecution to convict Thunberg and the others. “You are all found not guilty of this offense,” he told Thunberg and her co-defendants, who left the courtroom all smiles.
