2011-08-22
A Danish court on Monday handed two-week suspended sentences to 11 Greenpeace activists who gatecrashed a climate summit banquet in Copenhagen two years ago.
The activists unfurled a banner at a December 2009 banquet of world leaders after gaining access to the building in a limousine equipped with a false police light that joined a convoy of vehicles en route to the venue.
The Copenhagen City Court found the protesters guilty of trespassing, falsifying a license plate and impersonating a police officer. The Greenpeace Nordic office in the Danish capital, which planned the stunt, was fined 75,000 kroner ($14,500).
The activists included demonstrators from Spain, Switzerland, Norway and Netherlands.
In Belgium, 10 Greenpeace protesters were given one-month suspended sentences in March for a similar stunt at a 2009 European Union climate summit.
The activists got into the Brussels meeting by arriving in a shiny Mercedes, using fake accreditation and wore suits to blend in with European leaders. In front of dozens of cameras and journalists a demonstrator read from a text urging more EU action on climate change before being whisked away.