The long, sad trial of Newmont’s Richard Ness is finally winding up in the Manado court this week. He gets to read his pledoi, some Dutch legalese for the defence’s summation. Rick and Newmont’s goldmine was accused of polluting Buyat Bay with mercury to the extent that the residents there were suffering from Minimata Disease. Most of the media is giving him little coverage but his son, Eric keeps blogging away to chronicle the case and send developments to selected journalists and friends.
That was the allegation made by the NGOs then and it triggered a police investigation that led to the detention without trial of several Indonesian an expatriate executives of the gold mining company. Since then it has transpired that charges of Minimata Disease occurrences were untrue and, if you go by the book, Newmont did not quite pollute the bay.
The NGOs that made the charges have been sheepishly quiet about the incident and some of them have recanted their allegations once Newmont threatened them with lawsuits. Still, no one holds them accountable. And no one will, except maybe Rick, if the court acquits him. Unspun‘s heard that he’s in a mood to sue a lot of people who’ve put him in a tight spot over these past couple of years. Can’t blame him.
Unspun 
Leave a reply to moshe katsav Cancel reply