The case has made headlines in Sweden, with the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders in 2025 expressing concern that the Scandinavian country was treating its climate activists like "criminals".

The Solna district court handed the two activists, a 46-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman, suspended sentences of two months each and fines of 2,500 kronor and 26,000 kronor (around $270 and $2,800) respectively, based on their incomes.

In addition, the pair was also ordered to jointly pay 76,500 kronor in damages to private jet operator Grafair Flight Management.

The protest was organised by climate activist group Extinction Rebellion and its Scientist Rebellion offshoot on September 17, 2023 against the use of private jets at Stockholm's Bromma airport.

The two convicted activists threw red paint that landed on the terminal building, an aeroplane and cars parked nearby, the court found.

The 15 others who were acquitted had taken part in the protest by holding banners, communicating with police and documenting the events, the court said.

The two who were found guilty had argued they should be acquitted because they had acted in "a state of emergency" brought on by the climate crisis.

The court said it had "no reason to question that greenhouse gas emissions, over a longer time perspective, cause human deaths, among other things through rising temperatures".

It said it "also had no reason to doubt the Grafair Flight Management's operations at Bromma airport contribute to this".

However, the pair's vandalism "was not of such a nature that it could, in a sufficiently concrete and immediate way, contribute to saving the threatened interest invoked in support of the state of emergency".