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12 April 2024 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 8066 / Categories: Features , Human rights , Public , In Court
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Greta Thunberg: assembling peacefully?

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The Swedish activist pleaded not guilty to a public order offence—and the court agreed. Neil Parpworth explains the ruling
  • Covers the events on 17 October 2023, which resulted in Thunberg’s arrest.
  • Discusses the wider context of offences under s 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, and the way they have evolved.
  • Despite the widening of police powers, this particular ruling reflects a non-deferential approach to police decisions, which must be upheld in order to protect ECHR freedoms.

The environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg was recently found not guilty by Westminster Magistrates’ Court of a public order offence in relation to a protest by Greenpeace and Fossil Free London activists outside the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel in Mayfair, which took place on 17 October 2023. Inside the hotel, oil executives had been participating in a three-day event, the Energy Intelligence Forum, which explains why the protestors were chanting and holding banners reading: ‘Oily money out’ and ‘Make polluters pay.’

At her trial, Thunberg pleaded not guilty to an offence alleged

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