Dutch court fines firm over toxic waste

A Dutch court yesterday slapped a one-million-euro fine on multinational shipping company Trafigura for illegally exporting toxic waste to Ivory Coast that the West African nation says killed 17 people.

"The court sentences Trafigura to a fine of one million euros", equivalent to $1.3 million, presiding Judge Frans Bauduin said as he found the company guilty of breaking European waste export laws.

Switzerland-based Trafigura said it was disappointed by the ruling in the Amsterdam district court, its first court sanction for the events in Ivory Coast, and would consider an appeal.

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.

Trafigura "exported the waste... to the state (Ivory Coast) without having done a thorough analysis of the port city of Abidjan's capacity to process the waste ... in a responsible way," said the judge.