The Environmental Group Greenpeace has to do more than 660 million US dollars for defamation and other claims of a pipeline company in connection with protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline in North Dakota, a jury that was found on Wednesday.
The energy transmission based in Dallas and the subsidiary Dakota Access had accused the Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA based in the Netherlands and the financing of ARM Greenpeace Fund for slander, violation, harassment, civil conspiracy and other laws.
Greenpeace USA was held liable for all cases, while the others were liable for some. The damage owed is distributed in different quantities over the three units.
The energy transmission described the judgment of Wednesday as a “victory” for “Americans who understand the difference between the right to freedom of expression and the law”.
Greenpeace previously said that a large award to the pipeline company would make the organization bankrupt.
According to the judgment of the nine -person jury, Greenpeace’s senior legal advisor said that the work of the group “will never stop”.
“This is the really important message today, and we just go out and we will come together and find out what our next steps are,” Deepa Padmanabha told reporters in front of the courthouse.
The organization later said it intended to make an appeal against the decision.
“The fight against Big Oil is not over today,” said Kristin Casper’s international general Counsel of Greenpeace. “We know that the law and the truth are on our side.”
Casper said that the group in Amsterdam will bring an energy transfer in an anti-intimidation lawsuit submitted there last month.
What the allegations against Greenpeace were
The case returns to protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline and its River in Missouri, which exceeds the stream of the standing Rock -Sioux trunk. The line of the line has been rejected as a risk for its water supply for years.
The attempt by the standing Rock -Sioux tribe to stop the construction of an oil pipeline near his reserve by North Dakota failed on the Federal Court on Friday, but three US government authorities asked the Pipeline Company, the work at a segment that tribal officials say that tribal officials keep holy artifacts.
The multi-state pipeline transports about five percent of the daily oil production of the United States. It started to transport oil in mid -2017.
Trey Cox, the lawyer of energy transmission, said Greenpeace had carried out a program to stop building the pipeline. During the opening statements, he claimed that Greenpeace paid outsiders to come to the area and protest, send blockade supplies, to organize protests or to manage protesting and make untrue statements about the project to stop it.
Lawyers from the Greenpeace companies had said that there were no evidence of the claims, and the Greenpeace employees had no or no participation in the protests, and added that the organizations had nothing to do with the delays in the construction or refinancing of energy transmission.
Details of the damage
The damage amounts to almost 666.9 million US dollars (958 million US dollars). The jury found that Greenpeace USA had to pay most of the damage, almost 404 million US dollars ($ 580 million), while Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace International would pay around 131 million US dollars ($ 188 million).
In an explanation of the Associated Press, it says in an explanation: “Although we are pleased that Greenpeace was held accountable for her actions against us, this victory is really suitable for the people in Mandan and all over North Dakota, which had to go through the daily harassment and disorders by the demonstrators financed by Greenpeace.”
