Trafigura is guilty of illegal toxic waste dump in Abidjan town-centre, says court…fined 1million Euro
Trafigura, the multinational company, has been fined €1 million (£845,000) for transporting toxic waste to Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital city centre.
The poisonous dump resulted in the health damage of about 3000 town dwellers.
Frans Bauduin, presiding judge, said in the Amsterdam district court that the Swiss-based company was guilty of breaking European waste export laws.
It was also found guilty of concealing what the charge sheet referred to as the “harmful nature” of the waste on board the Probo Koala ship that arrived at the port of Amsterdam in July 2006, but was redirected to the Ivory Coast.
The court sentenced the captain of the Probo Koala ship, 46-year-old Sergiy Chertov, to a five-year suspended jail term, and fined 43-year-old Trafigura employee Naeem Ahmed, who coordinated the operation in the port of Amsterdam, €25,000.
The court found it had no jurisdiction to consider the charges against the city of Amsterdam, who administered the port, and imposed no sentence on waste treatment company Amsterdam Port Services (APS) or its former managing director Evert Uittenbosch, 60.
“This is the beginning of justice,” said Marietta Harjono, a Greenpeace spokeswoman.
The Amsterdam trial had related only to violations of European laws.
On July 2, 2006, caustic soda and petroleum residues on board the Probo Koala were prevented from being offloaded for treatment in the port of Amsterdam and redirected to Abidjan, where they ended up on Ivorian city’s waste heaps.
The waste, slops from the cleaning of fuel transportation tanks, was pumped back into the Probo Koala after APS demanded a higher price for treatment as it was more toxic than previously thought.
Trafigura declined to pay the increased price.
The company, which denies any link between the waste and casualties and has an independent experts’ report backing its stance, reached out of court settlements for €33 million and €152 million in Britain and Ivory Coast that exempted it from legal proceedings.
But a United Nations report published last September found “strong” evidence blaming the waste for at least 15 deaths and the need for several people to be taken to hospital.
Ivory Coast claims the waste caused 17 deaths and thousands of cases of poisoning.
Trafigura said it was ”disappointed by the judges’ ruling, which it believes to be incorrect”.
A statement from Trafigura said: “Concerning the delivery of dangerous goods, it is important that the court has noted that there was limited risk to human health from these slops, and indeed no damage occurred in Amsterdam.”
Trafigura said it was considering an appeal.
There had been several court proceedings since the toxic waste scandal unfolded in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, in 2006.
Trafigural-chem-dump
Trafigura, an oil trading company, initially tried to clean up low-grade oil by tipping caustic soda into the hold of the Probo Koala. The company tried to unload the waste in Amsterdam for treatment, declaring it as “harmless slops”.
When the treatment company came back with a higher price for cleaning the waste, the cargo was shipped to Africa where it ended up in Abidjan to be handled at a much lower rate.
Presiding Judge Frans Bauduin said: “Trafigura – which by that time knew of the exact composition [of the waste] – should never have agreed to its processing at such a price.”
Trafigura denies responsibility for the dumping of the waste and any deaths or injuries caused
Trafigura said it was pleased to have been acquitted of the charge of forgery, but was “disappointed by the judges’ ruling on the other two, which it believes to be incorrect”.
A statement from Trafigura said: “Concerning the delivery of dangerous goods, it is important that the court has noted that there was limited risk to human health from these slops, and indeed no damage occurred in Amsterdam.”
Trafigural-chem-dump
Trafigura said it was considering an appeal.
A lawyer representing the company, Robert de Bree, said: “I think it’s important to notice that the convictions relate to highly technical, complex legal matters and we will carefully study the judgement to look at the possibility of an appeal.”
Another Trafigura lawyer, Michael Wladimiroff, was quoted by Associated Press news agency as saying the company believed the Marine Pollution Treaty applied and that the court had incorrectly applied the terms of another waste management treaty.
The firm also maintained that Mr Ahmed “did nothing wrong”.
Greenpeace, which brought this case, has welcomed the outcome, saying it was a warning to firms not to export waste to developing countries.
Waste site near Abidjan, file picture The risk posed by the waste has been heavily disputed
Greenpeace toxics campaigner, Marietta Harjono, said that further legal action should be taken against Trafigura: “We must also be very clear that justice is not complete yet, because this is only the beginning, because Trafigura has not been brought to trial yet for the deliberate dumping of toxic waste in Africa.”
One of those who fell ill after waste was dumped, Ivorian Guy Oulla, told the BBC: “I believe it is a very good decision because people should pay for what they do, you know. So, I agree with that decision. You know, we live in Africa and it could happen again because in Africa people do everything for money.”
In 2008, a court in Ivory Coast found two non-Trafigura employees guilty of illegally dumping the waste.
A Nigerian national named Salomon Ugborugbo was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
He was the head of an Abidjan firm, Tommy, which Trafigura said it contracted in good faith to handle the waste from the Probo Koala.
Essoin Kouao, who worked as a shipping agent at the Port of Abidjan and had recommended Tommy to Trafigura, received a five-year prison term.
In 2007 Trafigura paid $160m (£104m) to the government of Ivory Coast without admitting liability.
Trafigura also paid $50m (£32m) in an out-of-court settlement to individuals in Ivory Coast who said they had been injured when the waste was spread on dumps around Abidjan.
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