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Last Update: December 26, 2007
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Botnia Directors Skip Court Date in Criminal Complaint
Entre Ríos – Argentina . Ronald Beare, Oy Metsa Botnia's Director of Uruguayan Operations, failed to appear in court today in Argentina to face criminal charges that he and other top Botnia Directors are guilty of intent to commit environmental crimes , based on the alleged risks and illegality of the controversial pulp mill Botnia constructed on the border river between Uruguay and Argentina. The case was filed by the Center for Human Rights and Environment in early 2006 on behalf of Jorge Busti, then governor. The Gualeguaychú Assembly, collectively grouping tens of thousands of local community members against the investment, later joined the complaint.
Federal Judge Guillermo Quadrini summed Beare and a group of other top Botnia officials to appear in federal court this week in the quaint town of Concepción del Uruguay (a town in Argentina) in the province of Entre Rios across from where the Botnia mill was recently inaugurated, despite massive opposition to the investment from local communities and environmental groups in Argentina and Uruguay.
Kaisu Annala, head of Environmental Affairs of the Finnish Pulp Mill, and CEO Erkki Varis are also amongst the summoned. It is expected that they too will refuse to travel to Argentina to face trial for the March 28 th court date set by the judge.
Oscar Salvi, the Argentine attorney allegedly representing the Finnish pulp mill directors also failed to appear before the judge to give any explanation for his clients' absence. Oscar Bargas, a local community representative, that traveled to Finland in 2006 to file another complaint against Botnia before Paula Letomaki, the Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry, commented that once again, the community is greatly let down by Botnia's failure to face up to local concerns regarding their mega pulp mill investment, in terms of environmental and social impacts. Bargas carried a stack of more than 40,000 signatures from community stakeholders against the Botnia mill, and delivered them to Letomaki in June of 2006. “The Botnian refusal now extends to our court system, where the company, and the Finnish authorities, are refusing to engage”, said Bargas.
Given that the Botnia mill operates in Uruguay, and that the Argentine judiciary cannot contact the summoned directors directly, the judge channeled his summons through the respective Foreign Ministries of Argentina and Uruguay. It is unknown whether the Botnian directors were duly notified by the Uruguayan government. Botnia has not made any public comments regarding the summons or their failure to appear in Court but they have hired a lawyer to represent the company.
The plaintiff lawyers in the case are now processing a request to the judge to enforce the summons, if necessary, through requesting physical detention.
More Information
For more information contact:
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEL: +54 9 11 67 29 54 66
jdtaillant@cedha.org.ar
