Den amerikanske oliegigant, Chevron, har fået en bøde på 8,6 milliarder US dollar for at forurene Amazon-regionen i Ecuador, skriver BBC Mundo mandag.
Bøden gives ifgl. klagernes advokat fordi, Chevron siden 2001 har skabt omfattende ødelæggelser af regnskoven i den nordlige del af landet i 1970erne og 80erne, da Chevron var ansvarlig, stadig ifgl. klagernes advokat, for ulovlig udførsel af regnskovstræ.
Chevron mener, at dommen er ulovlig og firmaet vil appellere den.
Se også http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.7507526
Verdensbanken tilføjer tirsdag i sin presseoversigt:
The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic materials into unlined pits (huller) and Amazon rivers. Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased.
The decision by Judge Nicolas Zambrano in Lago Agrio, a town founded as an oil camp in the 1960s, immediately opened a contentious new stage of appeals in a legal battle that has dragged on in courts in Ecuador and the US for 17 years, pitting forest tribes and villagers against one of the largest American corporations.
Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs (sagsøgerne), called the ruling a “triumph of justice”, but said it still fell short.
– We are going to appeal because we think that the damages awarded are not enough, he said. The plaintiffs were seeking as much as 113 billion dollar, according to a report recently submitted to the court.
Chevron said it would appeal, accusing the plaintiff’s attorneys of conspiring with witnesses to present tainted testimony.
“The Ecuadorian court’s judgment is illegitimate and unenforceable. It is the product of fraud (svindel)”, a Chevron statement said.
Indeed, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York last week issued an order that temporarily bars efforts to collect money from Chevron, which has assets the world over but not in Ecuador.
