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Swedish prosecutors on Thursday called for lengthy prison sentences for two former oil executives accused of war crimes over their business dealings during Sudan’s civil war.
Ian Lundin of Sweden and Swiss national Alex Schneiter are accused of asking Sudan’s government to make its military responsible for security at the site of one of Lundin Oil’s exploration fields, which later led to aerial bombings, the killing of civilians and burning of entire villages between 1999 and 2003, according to the prosecution.
Lundin was chief executive of Swedish family firm Lundin Oil, now known as Orron Energy, from 1998-2002, and Schneiter was vice president at the time.
Both have denied the charges, saying there was no relationship between the company and Sudan’s government as claimed by the prosecution.
The prosecutor called for a 10-year prison sentence for Lundin and six years for Schneiter and asked the court to place them in custody at the end of the trial pending the verdict as they posed a flight risk, news agency TT reported.
“This concerns involvement over a long period of time, in several different stages, and complicity in crimes against civilians where a very large number of civilians had their lives completely destroyed in the company’s and the defendants’ pursuit of profit,” prosecutor Henrik Attorps told the Stockholm district court on Thursday as he delivered his closing arguments.
The trial opened in September 2023, following a more than decade-long probe and a more than 80,000-page investigation report.
The prosecution argued that after Lundin Oil struck oil in 1999 in the “Block 5A” field in what is now South Sudan, the Sudanese military, together with an allied militia, led offensive military operations to take control of the area and create “the necessary preconditions for Lundin Oil’s oil exploration.”
It said the accused were complicit because Lundin Oil had entered into agreements with Sudan’s government to make the military responsible for security, knowing it meant the military and allied militias would need to take control of areas by “military force,” prosecutors have argued.
According to the prosecution, this included aerial bombardments from transport planes, shooting civilians from helicopter gunships, abducting civilians, plundering villages and burning crops.
The trial is expected to wind up in May and no date has been set for the verdict.
Additional sources • AFP
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