Almost 80 criminal charges filed at Tesla plant protest in Germany
Police say they have filed 76 criminal charges and temporarily detained 23 activists during days of protests against US electric car manufacturer Tesla at its manufacturing plant outside Berlin.
These included five activists who were brought before a magistrate, the police announced on Sunday. However, all of them were eventually released from custody.
According to the police, the criminal charges mainly related to offences against the assembly law, coercion in road traffic, acts of resistance, breach of the peace and damage to property.
Since Wednesday, several organizations had been calling for a week of action with protests relating to environmental threats posed by the Tesla plant and its planned expansion. The manufacturer denies that its factory poses a threat to the nearby ecosystem.
Police said they counted a total of 18 gatherings during the days of action. They also banned a planned demonstration on a motorway bridge.
Further protest action against Tesla's expansion of its giant electric car factory, dubbed a gigafactory, in the small town of Grünheide near Berlin is possible in the coming days despite the end of recent demonstrations, several activist groups warned on Sunday.
The alliance Tesla den Hahn abdrehen, which translates as "turn off Tesla's tap" in reference to the company's huge water usage, said it will attend Thursday's local council meeting in Grünheide on the growth plans for the US company's gigafactory.
If the council votes in favour of significantly expanding the site, contrary to a public consultation, the allied protest group Disrupt Tesla "will be back," their spokeswoman Lucia Mende said.
On Saturday, more than 1,000 environmental activists staged a march against the factory, following clashes and arrests the previous day.
A supporting forest camp was to be dismantled on Sunday as agreed, but a protest at a nearby railway station will continue, said Caro Weber, a spokeswoman for a third group called Stop Tesla. The groups said they would keep their options open for further actions.
Around 12,000 people work at the plant in Grünheide, which is partly located in a water protection area and has been the focus of environmental protests since February.
The latest demonstrations against the site's expansion began on Wednesday and were set to end on Sunday.
Following the public consultation in Grünheide, in which a majority voted against the expansion, the municipality and Tesla signalled that a smaller forest area would be cleared.
