Trafigura, city council on trial over toxic waste in Amsterdam,

Oil company Trafigura and others involved in the Probo Koala toxic waste scandal put their own interests above those of the public and the environment, prosecutor Luuk Boogert said at the start of the trial in Amsterdam on Tuesday.


The oil company, the ship’s captain, waste processor APS and Amsterdam city council are all charged with flouting environmental laws in early July 2006, when the ship was moored in the city for four days.
Trafigura is charged with breaking Dutch export and environmental laws and forging official documents. APS and the city council are charged with not stopping the export of dangerous waste.
None of the major defendants were in court. Attendance is not compulsory in the Dutch legal system .
Price
The Probo Koala arrived in Amsterdam on July 2 and APS agreed to clean up the toxic sludge the ship was carrying. But once workers discovered the waste was more polluted than first thought, there was a dispute over the price of the clean up. The waste was pumped back into the tanker and it was allowed to leave.
The Probo Koala arrived in Ivory Coast some six weeks later, where the waste was handed over for processing to an unqualified local firm. It was then dumped around the city of Abdijan.
Trafigura has always denied that the waste was dangerous, or that it knew of the dumping.
Settlements
The company has so far avoided court. In September 2009, Trafigura agreed to pay a maximum €33m in damages to 31,000 people from Ivory Coast who claim they were made ill by toxic waste from the Probo Koala.
The Ivory Coast claimants’ London-based lawyers agreed to the out-of-court settlement, saying Trafigura could not be held legally responsible for the health problems.
In 2007, Trafigura agreed to pay €152m to the Ivory Coast government to settle its claim and pay for the clean-up but denying liability.
The trial is expected to last five weeks.

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