A northern Dakota jury in the United States considered the Greenpeace responsible for millions of dollars in damage to a oil company in relation to protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline oil tickling for almost a decade.
Energy Transfer Partners, based in Dallas, sued Greenpeace in 2019, accusing the environmental group of planning protests, spreading false information and causing financial losses to the company through property damage and loss of revenue.
After a three -week trial, the jury of 9 people took two days to return his verdict, granting more than $ 660 million in damage to Energy Transfer.
The result is a blow to the 50 -year -old environmental organization, which previously said that the case could bankrupt its operations in the US, and experts say this may have implications for freedom of expression.
“I think this is one of the worst decisions of the first amendment (from the US Constitution) in American history,” said Marty Garbus, a civil rights lawyer who has monitored the trial. “The decision is beyond understanding.”
Other experts criticized trial as a strategic process against public participation that seeks to silence critics, condemning them to exorbitant legal costs.
“The verdict is a loss to Greenpeace, but even more so for the right of the first amendment to speak, and therefore to all Americans,” said James Wheaton, founder and senior advisor to the First Amendment Project. “If large corporations can do this with one, they can do with everyone.”
Greenpeace has confirmed that it will appeal.
The lawsuit, filed against Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace International, headquartered in the Netherlands, and Greenpeace Fund, based in Washington DC, spun around protests against the construction of Dakota Access Pipeline near the US Standing Rock reserve in 2016 and 2017.
The Standing Rock Sioux opposed to the pipeline, saying that he would endanger the Missouri River, its water source, and damage sacred tribal lands. Thousands of people, including representatives of more than 100 tribes and dozens of non -profit organizations, joined the protest that lasted months.
Energy Transfer accused Greenpeace of executing a scheme to prevent the construction of the pipeline. During the opening statements of the trial, the company’s lawyer, Trey Cox, accused the organization of paying outsiders to enter the area and protesting, organizing protesters and making defamatory statements about the pipeline.
“Today, the jury has given a resounding verdict, declaring the actions of Greenpeace wrong, illegal and unacceptable by social standards. It is a day of reckoning and liability for Greenpeace,” Cox said in a statement.
“This verdict serves as a powerful statement of the first amendment. Pacific protest is an inherent American right; however, violent and destructive protest is illegal and unacceptable,” Cox added.
Greenpeace, however, said the allegation was a veiled attack on freedom of expression and protest, and it was an attempt to make the group responsible for everything that happened in the demonstration in the presence of thousands, most of which had no connection with Greenpeace.
The group’s lawyers argued that he had only a secondary role in the protest, teaching non -violent direct action skills at the request of indigenous organizers. Regarding the alleged defamatory statements, Greenpeace argued that these allegations were widely disclosed in the media even before they were commented.
“We should all be concerned about the future of the first amendment and processes like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression,” said Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal advisor to Greenpeace USA.
Last month, Greenpeace International filed a lawsuit against Energy Transfer in a Dutch court, seeking to recover the damage and costs that the organization incurred as a result of the company’s processes.
“The fight against Big Oil is not over today, and we know that the truth and the law are on our side. Greenpeace International will continue to campaign for a green and peaceful future. Energy Transfer has not listened to us for the last time in this fight,” said Kristin Casper of Greenpeace International General Council in a statement.
