Sudan war crime trial of ex-oil firm executives starts in Sweden

Orron Energy AB

05/09/2023 02:00

STOCKHOLM, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The former CEO and the
chairman of a Swedish oil firm go on trial in Sweden on Tuesday,
accused of complicity in war crimes in Sudan between 1999 and
2003.
    Prosecutors say then-Lundin Oil - which since then changed
name several times and in 2022 sold most of its business - asked
Khartoum to secure a potential oilfield in what is now South
Sudan, knowing this would mean seizing the area by force.
    This made the executives complicit in war crimes that were
then carried out by the Sudanese army and allied militia against
civilians, according to the 2021 indictment.
    "What constitutes complicity in a criminal sense is that
they made these demands despite understanding or, in any case
being indifferent to, the military and the militia carrying out
the war in a way that was forbidden according to international
humanitarian law," the prosecution agency said in 2021. 
    The firm at the time rejected the allegations, and
identified the indicted as former Chairman Ian Lundin and former
CEO Alex Schneiter. 
    Prosecutors in 2021 also filed a claim to confiscate 1.4
billion crowns ($127 million) from the company, corresponding to
profits from the sale of the Sudan business in 2003. 
    Last week Orron Energy  ORRON.ST  - the company's name since
2022 when it sold its oil and gas operations to Norway's Aker BP
in a $14 billion deal - said prosecutors had increased the claim
to 2.4 billion crowns.
    The company has said it will contest the claim.
    Sweden launched the probe in 2010 following a report on the
company's presence in Sudan by Dutch non-governmental
organization PAX. 
    Sudan waged war for decades in South Sudan, which became
independent in 2011, and elsewhere in the country. Former
president Omar al-Bashir, who ruled between 1989 and 2019, is
wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for
genocide and other war crimes, which he denies.
    ($1 = 11.0082 Swedish crowns)

 (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; 
Editing by Sandra Maler)
 ((anna.ringstrom@thomsonreuters.com; +46 8 502 423 74))