A trial started on Tuesday in Stockholm of two executives of a Swedish oil exploration and production company accused of complicity in war crimes in Sudan 20 years ago by securing the company’s oil operations in the African nation.
Prosecutors claim that Ian Lundin, former chairman of Lundin Oil, and Alex Schneiter, its former CEO, supported the Sudanese government of former dictator Omar al-Bashir.
They said the two executives created “the necessary conditions for the subsidiary’s operations by conducting warfare in a way that entailed the Sudanese military and regime allied militia systematically attacking civilians or at least carrying out systematic attacks in violation of the principles of distinction and proportionality.”
From 1983 to 2005, Sudan was torn apart by a civil war between the Muslim-dominated north and Christian south. A separate conflict in Darfur, the war-scarred region of western Sudan, began in 2003. Thousands of people were killed and nearly 200,000 displaced. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 to become the world’s youngest nation.
Lundin told reporters at the Stockholm District Court that the accusations were “completely false.”
“We look forward to defending ourselves in court,” he said.
