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| Shell in Nigeria: Court acquits firm on most charges | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A Dutch court has rejected four out of five allegations against Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell over oil pollution in Nigeria's Niger Delta region. | |
| But it found a subsidiary of the firm, Shell Nigeria, responsible for one case of pollution, ordering it to pay compensation to one Nigerian farmer. | |
| The level of damages in that case will be established at a later hearing. | |
| The landmark case against the Anglo-Dutch firm was brought by four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth. | The landmark case against the Anglo-Dutch firm was brought by four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth. |
| The case is linked to spills in Goi, Ogoniland; Oruma in Bayelsa State and a third in Ikot Ada Udo, Akwa Ibom State. | |
| The farmers had alleged that oil spills had poisoned their fish ponds and farmland with leaking pipelines. | |
| The court said Shell was only guilty of negligence. | |
| "The district court has established that four oil spills were not caused by defective maintenance by Shell but by sabotage from third parties," the court said in its judgement. | |
| It said according to Nigerian law, the firm was not responsible for damage caused in this way. | |
| However, in one case it found Shell Nigeria culpable of neglecting its duty of care and ruled that: "Shell could and should have prevented this sabotage in an easy way". | |
| Friends of the Earth have said they are "flabbergasted" by the verdict and intend to appeal. |