The trial begins in which the pipeline construction company Energy Transfer complain For protests in 2016 and payment of 300 million dollars to Greenpeace EE.UU.that the organization considers A threat to survival and a warning to silence other NGOs.
Behind case 30-2019-0V-00180 appears a multimillionaire gag That looms About environmental activism. A demand for 300 million dollars threatens to sink Greenpeace USA and destroy the environmental protest movement.
The energy pipeline construction company has been pursued in court for eight years for protests against one of his projects in Dakota del Norte until he managed to sit on the bench.
The trial begins today. “The result will define the limits of corporate power and the possibility of society to resist it”,, Activists, jurists and political scientists predict.
One of the cases against the most transcendental freedom of expression in recent history
Today starts in Dakota del Norte The judgment of Energy Transfer against Greenpeace offices in the United States and Greenpeace International, One of the cases against the most transcendental freedom of expression in recent history.
Energy Transfer, The multimillionaire corporation behind the Dakota Access pipeline and one of the great donors of the Donald Trump campaign, claims 300 million dollars in damages To organizations falsely accusing them of leading the protests of indigenous activists against the construction of a pipeline in 2016, an exorbitant amount that threatens Greenpeace’s very survival in the US.
This is one of the greatest cases of strategic demand against public participation (SLAPP) never presentedand supposes a threatens not only to environmental justice, but also to the right to protest and freedom of expression.
At a crucial moment for democracy, with Donald Trump carrying the denialism to the US government and determined to reverse the steps taken so far in the defense of the planet, Greenpeace has there and worldwide a fundamental role.
Las fossil fuel companiesthat They finance the new US presidentThey know. A sentence against the environmental organization in that country can endanger its survival, to have disastrous effects on the rest of offices worldwide and sit precedent so that other companies continue with this oppression.
Energy Transfer (ET) falsely accuses Greenpeace Ee. Uu. Leading indigenous protests against the Dakota Access pipeline between 2016 and 2017actually starring the native peoples of Standing Rock and that the organization supported.
The mobilization managed to stop the work temporarily. However, After the arrival of Donald Trump to powerthe project continued and Energy Transfer (ET) He took reprisals.
SLAPP o Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation
Although justice dismissed the demand, Energy Transfer (ET) insisted on his harassment: His army of lawyers has held a strategy of judicial intimidation against Greenpeace for years based on multiplying legal actions difficult to counteract For a non -profit entity.
Is what is known as a SLAPP o Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participationa Very common tool from power and large corporations to try to silence activists or journalists with dissident voices.
The trial is open to the public in the Court of Dakota del Norte. Multiple media attempts and surveillance groups have been denied to request greater transparency and accessibility to judicial actions.
The application of Greenpeace parts of public broadcast was deniedand recently too An request for extension of media coverage by several media and journalists was denied.
Maximum jurists and academics have shown their concern about the case and have constituted a group of observers who will be monitoring the trial, Among them lawyer Marty Garbus, who has represented numerous personalities in civil rights cases, such as Nelson Mandela and Daniel Ellsberg.
In response to the siege of Energy Transfer (ET), Greenpeace International filed a lawsuit on February 11 before a Dutch court against the company American using the European Union Anti-Slapp directive for the first time.
With this demand, the environmental organization seeks repair for all the damages and costs that it is suffering as a result of the continuous and foundation of the fossil company.
More information: SLAPP or how to silence the population