Climate protection is not a crime, Greta Thunberg says after detention

BERLIN (AA) – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg reiterated her support to anti-coal protesters in northwestern Germany on Wednesday, a day after she was briefly detained by police.

“Climate protection is not a crime,” she said on Twitter, deploring the heavy-handed police action against activists who were peacefully protesting the expansion of a coal mine in Lutzerath.

“We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening,” she said.

Thunberg used the hashtags of #LuetziBleibt, #KeepItInTheGround, and #ClimateJustice to extend her support to the climate activists who are protesting the coal mining in the area.

Thunberg was among the protesters who were detained near the village of Lutzerath after they marched to the coal-mining area to stop excavation activities. They were put in a police bus and released after an identity check.

Lutzerath was occupied by climate activists for two years and became a symbol for environmental groups calling for an end to the use of coal and fossil fuels.

German police on Monday removed the last activists from the village on the sixth day of the operation to evict the protest camp.

The energy company RWE began demolishing buildings in the abandoned village to expand the Garzweiler coal mine. The company said in a statement that the coal under Lutzerath is needed to "make the best use" of the lignite fleet during the energy crisis.

Under an agreement between the German government and the RWE, the company will bring forward its coal phase-out by eight years and end lignite-fired power generation by 2030.