A Dutch court will hand down judgment Friday in the first trial of a Switzerland-based company whose chartered ship dumped waste alleged to have killed 17 people in Ivory Coast in 2006.

The multinational Trafigura along with waste treatment company Amsterdam Port Services (APS) and the Ukrainian captain of the Probo Koala ship were tried with three others accused of breaking environment and waste export laws on Dutch territory.

They all pleaded not guilty before the Amsterdam district court, where presiding judge Frans Bauduin will start reading the judgment at 11:00 am (0900 GMT).

Trafigura risks a fine of up to 2.1 million euros (2.7 million dollars).

Back on July 2, 2006, caustic soda and petroleum residues on board the Probo Koala were prevented from being offloaded for treatment in the Port of Amsterdam and redirected to Abidjan, where they were dumped on Ivorian city's waste tips.

The waste, slops from the cleaning of fuel transportation tanks, was pumped back into the Probo Koala after APS demanded a higher price for treatment as it was more toxic than previously thought.
Trafigura declined to pay the increased price.

The company, which denies any link between the waste and casualties and has an independent experts' report backing its stance, reached out of court settlements for 33 million euros (42 million dollars) and 152 million euros in Britain and Ivory Coast that exempted it from legal proceedings.

But a United Nations report published last September found "strong" evidence blaming the waste for at least 15 deaths and several hospitalisations.

The Ivory Coast claims the dumping caused 17 deaths and thousands of cases of poisoning. Prosecutors asked the Dutch court to impose a two-million-euro fine on Trafigura.

They also sought a one-year jail term for Trafigura employee Naeem Ahmed, 43, who coordinated the operation in the port of Amsterdam, and four months for the Ukrainian captain of the ship, Sergiy Chertov, 46, for allegedly falsifying documents and lying about the nature of the waste.

For APS former managing director Evert Uittenbosch, 60, the prosecution sought a six-month jail term, half of it suspended, for violating environmental laws.

APS faces a 250,000-euro fine for the same violation, and the city of Amsterdam, which administered the port, a fine of 150,000 euros for not having prevented the exportation of dangerous waste.

(AFP)