MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Thunberg released from German Police custody

At no time were the activists formally detained, a German police spokesman said (Pic REUTERS)

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was released from a German Police precinct Tuesday after she was identified together with all the other demonstrators joining her in a protest in the town of Lützerath, which was to be demolished to expand a coal mining project in a country needing energy sources following Russia's response to western sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.

Thunberg was carried away from the site of the protests by several law enforcement officers who grabbed her by her limbs and taken to a police station where she spent several hours.

The activists were then taken away from the “danger zone” by bus and officers checked their identities before releasing them, a police spokesman said. At no time were the activists formally detained, he added.

Thunberg, 20, has been in Germany since Saturday to support of the last group of activists opposing the expansion of an open-pit coal mine. “It is a disgrace that the German government makes agreements and compromises with companies like RWE,” Thunberg said.

Lützerath, located in the Rhine basin between Düsseldorf and Cologne, is to disappear to allow the expansion of a huge open-cast lignite mine, one of the largest in Europe, operated by RWE. To prevent this, some 300 activists occupied the village. The last two left the site on Monday, following a police eviction operation. Saturday's demonstration brought together more than 15,000 people, a dozen of whom were injured after clashes with law enforcement. Demonstrators waved banners with slogans such as “Stop coal” and “Lützerath lives!”.

In October, the German Government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed a deal with RWE allowing the destruction of the town, after residents were expropriated years ago. In exchange, the company agreed to stop producing electricity from coal by 2030. But for the time being, the expansion of the mine was deemed necessary to ensure the country's energy supply after Moscow's retaliatory measures.

Thunberg's allies claim that the current lignite reserves are sufficient and insist Germany should not be mining any more lignite (or brown coal) to focus on renewable energy instead. The Swedish environmental activist also called the expansion of the mine a “betrayal of present and future generations.” She added that “Germany is one of the biggest polluters in the world and needs to be held accountable.”