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US lawyer who battled Chevron in Ecuador sentenced for contempt

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A US lawyer who secured a landmark judgment in opposition to Chevron over the harm he stated the oil business had inflicted on indigenous communities in Ecuador has been sentenced to 6 months in jail, the newest twist in an long-running authorized saga.

A decide in New York stated human-rights lawyer Steve Donziger deserved the utmost six-month sentence for wilfully and intentionally disobeying courtroom orders. In July she discovered him responsible of contempt of courtroom for refusing handy data to Chevron in regards to the case.

“Mr Donziger has spent the final seven-plus years thumbing his nostril on the US judicial system,” stated US Choose Loretta Preska. “It’s now time to pay the piper.”

Donziger, who was on the verge of tears throughout the listening to, identified he had already served over two years of home arrest, pressured to put on an ankle bracelet, had no cash, been barred from the authorized career and had his passport confiscated.

“I feel by any goal measure I’ve already been punished fairly severely,” he stated.

The battle between Donziger and Chevron dates again three a long time and has been framed by environmentalists as a traditional David-versus-Goliath tussle between 1000’s of poor farmers and indigenous folks within the Amazon basin and one of many largest corporations on the planet.

In contrast, Chevron has depicted it as a smear marketing campaign with no foundation in actual fact, led by a manipulative lawyer who disregarded the rule of regulation.

Within the Nineteen Nineties, Donziger launched a category motion swimsuit in opposition to Texaco on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorians over the devastation he stated the corporate had brought on within the Lago Agrio oilfield.

He stated Texaco, which had operated within the space because the Seventies, was accountable for what regarded like “an apocalyptic catastrophe”, leading to persistent sicknesses, congenital ailments and in some instances demise as a consequence of air pollution.

In 2001, Chevron inherited the case when it purchased Texaco, though it stated it had no liabilities to settle. It stated Texaco had cleaned up its operational space earlier than the takeover and that any remaining contamination was the accountability of Texaco’s associate, Ecuadorean state-owned Petroecuador.

9 years later, an Ecuadorean courtroom discovered Chevron liable and ordered it to pay over $18bn in compensation — on the time the largest award ever in opposition to a company exterior the US.

The determine was later halved, however environmentalists and indigenous activists nonetheless hailed Donziger as a hero and stated the case would function a precedent for different campaigns in opposition to Huge Oil.

Chevron refused to pay and withdrew from Ecuador. Attorneys for the plaintiffs went after the corporate in Argentina, Brazil and Canada to attempt to safe cost, however with out success.

The oil firm launched a counter-offensive and sued Donziger within the US, saying he used underhand strategies to get the decision he wished.

In 2014 a US decide agreed, discovering that Donziger had successfully ghostwritten the Ecuadorean judgment himself and obtained the choice by way of “corrupt means”, which the lawyer denied.

The case additionally went to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which issued a damning indictment of Donziger and his authorized group. It stated folks claiming to be real plaintiffs “really had been engaged in blackmail and bribery of Ecuadorean judges”. It stated the courtroom verdict in opposition to Chevron shouldn’t be enforced.

After varied appeals, Donziger was disbarred within the US and later convicted of contempt of courtroom after he refused a decide’s order handy over his mobile phone and laptop computer in order that they might be handed on to Chevron, permitting the corporate to see data associated to the case.

Donziger, who stated he’s interesting in opposition to the conviction, argued that the decide’s request was a violation of attorney-client privilege.

The case nonetheless ignites passions practically 30 years after it started. Environmental activists and different supporters of Donziger staged a rally exterior the Manhattan courtroom the place he was sentenced on Friday.

“Chevron has used each soiled trick within the e-book to overturn that [initial] victory and destroy the lives of those that had the center to face as much as them,” non-governmental organisation Amazon Watch stated in an announcement.

On the opposite facet on the argument, one defence lawyer has accused Donziger of making an attempt “to bludgeon the corporate into settling the case for big sums that don’t have any foundation in actual fact or regulation”. 

Preska stated the case was strictly about Donziger’s refusal to obey courtroom orders and never in regards to the broader allegations. “Even when Chevron is the dangerous man in Mr Donziger’s eyes, that doesn’t make Mr Donziger the nice man,” she stated.

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