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Drunken Christmas revelries lead to arrests

Many people went overboard in their Christmas merriment this year, with arrests for public drunkenness up across Sweden over the weekend.

Drunken Christmas revelries lead to arrests

Police i Skåne county, in the south of Sweden, took 44 people into custody for being drunk and disorderly the night between Sunday and Monday, in Blekinge there were 28, in Kalmar 46 and Gävleborg 45.

Police on the Baltic island of Gotland reported that many intoxicated party-goers created all sorts of mischief on the island.

“Maybe not the most peaceful Christmas you might hope for and the question remains whether Santa Claus will visit the homes of the naughty next year,” the local police website report concluded.

In central Malmö, two police officers were almost run down at 2am by a car they tried to stop for reckless driving. Further away two other police officers tried to stop the car, but they also fled to avoid being run over.

The police fired two shots at the car, but it continued towards E 65 highway, heading in the wrong direction to traffic. There, the police were able to pull the car over. A total of seven people in the car were arrested. The charges include two counts of attempted murder, attempted assault and reckless driving.

Three people were also fished out of the canal near a central night club in Malmö.

“We got the call that a woman was paddling around the canal and another woman had jumped in to save her. When we arrived we found three people lying in the water. We fished them out and drove them to the hospital,” said Marie Persson of the Skåne police to news agency TT.

A total of 45 people ended up sleeping off their drunkenness in police stations around Skåne.

“That’s double as many as an ordinary weekend, but not worse than last Christmas,” said Persson to TT.

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CRIME

Stockholm court fines Greta Thunberg over parliament climate protest

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was handed a fine for disobeying police orders after blocking access to Sweden's parliament during a protest.

Stockholm court fines Greta Thunberg over parliament climate protest

Police removed Thunberg on March 12th and 14th after she refused to leave the main entrance, where she was protesting with a small group of activists for several days. MPs could still access the building via secondary entrances.

The court said it fined the activist 6,000 Swedish kronor ($551) and ordered her to pay 1,000 kronor in damages and interest.

Thunberg denied the charges of two counts of civil disobedience, according to an AFP journalist at the hearing.

Asked by the judge why she had not obeyed police orders, she replied: “Because there was a (climate) emergency and there still is. And in an emergency, we all have a duty to act.”

“The current laws protect the extractive industries instead of protecting people and the planet, which is what I believe should be the case,” she said as she left the courtroom.

Thunberg has been fined twice before in Sweden, in July and October 2023, for civil disobedience during similar protests.

In February, a London judge dropped charges against her for disturbing the peace during a demonstration against the oil industry in October in the British capital.

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