Swedish court fines Greta Thunberg $240 over refusal to obey police order to leave oil protest

July 24 (UPI) -- Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was fined $240 after being found guilty Monday of refusing to leave a protest at an oil terminal in southern Sweden in June.

Thunberg appeared at Malmo District Court charged with disobeying the order from police after the 20-year-old and other demonstrators blocked traffic from accessing the facility in nearby Norro Hamnen, resulting in their being arrested, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said.

In court, Thunberg admitted refusing to comply with an order by the police -- but denied her actions constituted a criminal offense, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

"I think we are in an emergency. There is a climate crisis that threatens life, health and property."

During the protest, Thunberg posted on social media that climate change had already reached the stage of being a "matter of life and death for countless people."

"We choose to not be bystanders, and instead physically stop the fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future."

Thunberg, who in 2019 was Time Magazine's youngest ever Person of the Year, graduated high school just 10 days before the June 19 protest at which she was detained.

Graduation brought to a close more than 250 weekly school strikes, dubbed "Fridays for Future," in which she led her classmates in walkouts demanding action on climate change, a movement that spread around the world, culminating with youth protests in 180 countries in 2019.

When Thunberg began skipping class in 2018 at the age of 15, there were no other takers and she picketed the Swedish parliament alone.

"We who can speak up have a duty to do so. In order to change everything, we need everyone," Thunberg said at her graduation. "I'll continue to protest on Fridays, even though it's not technically 'school striking.'

"We simply have no other option than to do everything we possibly can. The fight has only just begun."