On September 17, 2023, Isabelle Letellier left her home in western Stockholm early in the morning. Active for just over four years with the group Scientist Rebellion, a branch of the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion, the university lecturer – who holds a PhD in psychology – was due to meet others at Bromma airport, three kilometers from her home, to join a protest against private jets, which are major emitters of CO₂. Her sons, now 9 and 11, had a basketball game and a birthday party that afternoon. She expected to be home by lunchtime. But nothing went as planned.
With curly hair and round glasses, sitting in her living room with books lining the walls, 43-year-old Letellier recalled the moment everything changed. There were 17 activists that day, gathered in the parking lot in front of the private jet terminal. She was holding a banner calling for a ban on private jets when two of her fellow activists threw red paint on a hangar and a jet. Armed police arrived and placed all the demonstrators under arrest.
In mid-April 2026, all 17 activists stood trial for “vandalism and complicity in vandalism” at the Attunda court, in the north of the capital, during a three-day hearing where they justified their actions as a response to the “climate emergency.” The Frenchwoman’s case drew particular attention. Beyond illustrating the growing crackdown on environmental activists in Sweden, it shed light on a double penalty for foreign nationals: In August 2024, Letellier was denied Swedish citizenship. “To obtain Swedish citizenship, the applicant must have led and continue to lead a calm and respectable life in Sweden,” the immigration authorities argued.
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