Thunberg had been a participant at a coal mine protest in the German village of Lützerath.
On Tuesday, a protest was held in the German village of Lützerath to protest the expansion of a local coal mine. Protestors have been demonstrating near the mine expansion site to speak out against the expansion of energy company RWE, both in the interest of the local populace and to discourage the continued usage of fossil fuels.
One of the individuals present at Tuesday’s protest was prominent teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. Thunberg, alongside a crowd of other protestors, moved passed a police blockade closer to the mine proper. This prompted local authorities to nonviolently subdue the protestors, Thunberg included, and detain them. That night, after a brief processing period, Thunberg and the protestors were released.
“Climate protection is not a crime,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter today. “Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening.”
”Thunberg was only briefly detained. Once (Thunberg’s) identity was established, she was free to go,” Achen police spokesperson Max Wilmes told CNN.
”Due to the recognition of her name, police sped up the identification process,” Wilmes said.
