the toxic truth - Greenpeace

166 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds
Chapter 13
Doumbia Siaka (right picture) and
Amado Bakayoko visited
Amsterdam in September 2010
to meet the public prosecutor and
explain in person the allegations
they had made as part of the
dossier that Greenpeace had
submitted. During their stay, they
decided they no longer wished to
remain anonymous.
© GREENPEACE/bAS bEENTjES
Trafigura’s lawyers have acknowledged
that an amount of CFA1.5 million € 2,200
was paid to the drivers in April 2010 for a
second statement but claimed that was only
because they were forced to do so. According
to Trafigura’s lawyers, Macfarlanes, “The
necessity for this was prompted solely by our
learning in 2010 that [name withheld] was
seeking to blackmail Trafigura by publicising
completely false statements about his
evidence.” 728
In September 2010 two of the Ivorian truck
drivers came to the Netherlands to meet
the Public Prosecutor and explain in person
the allegations they had made as part of the
dossier that Greenpeace submitted. These
two drivers then decided that, after four years, they would no
longer hide their faces and names.
In June 2012 the Dutch Public Prosecutor informed
Greenpeace that they would not start criminal investigations
into the allegations brought forward. In the letter the prosecutor
stated that, while Trafigura Beheer BV is registered in the
Netherlands, it is only a formal registration for tax reasons
(via a trust office); actual business does not take place from
Netherlands. The prosecutor argued that Trafigura Beheer BV
cannot be said to have Dutch nationality on this sole basis, and
that for this reason, among others, “any connecting factor for
jurisdiction of the Dutch courts” is lacking. 729
The rational put forward by the prosecutor in this case is very
problematic from the perspective of corporate accountability. If
accepted it would mean a company is considered a Dutch entity
for some purposes but not for others. This would mean that
Trafigura - and companies like it - not only get the tax benefits
of the Netherlands but an assurance of legal immunity for
prosecution for acts for which other legal and natural persons
in the Netherlands could be held to account.
Article 51 of the Netherlands’ Criminal Code explicitly states