A Report On The Lundin Case
9BR CHAMBERS & RPC SOLICITORS
Lundin Oil, its former CEO and Chairman of the Board are suspected of complicity in alleged war crimes committed in Block 5A in southern Sudan 1999-2003.
From the outset, Lundin has always maintained that none of its representatives committed or were complicit in any international crimes in Sudan.
The allegations and basis for this investigation are seriously flawed as set out in outline in this independent report, authored by 9BR Chambers and RPC Solicitors. The report was commissioned by the board of Lundin Energy.
“It's very important, once a narrative is established, that we don't believe that the narrative is the truth. The truth is the evidence and the facts.”
Steven Kay KC - 10 May 2021
A Report On The Lundin Case
9BR CHAMBERS & RPC SOLICITORS
Allegations
25 years have passed since the publication of Christian Aid’s Scorched Earth: Oil and War in Sudan in March 2001. The report made serious and far-reaching allegations that Lundin and other oil companies operating in Sudan were complicit in alleged international crimes.
Similar allegations were subsequently repeated by Human Rights Watch in 2003 and, in 2010, by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), a campaigning organisation, in its report Unpaid Debt: The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Block 5A, Sudan 1997–2003.
Subsequent examination has demonstrated that Christian Aid’s allegations were unsupported by reliable evidence. A detailed analysis of the NGO reports raises significant concerns regarding both their independence and the credibility of the material on which they rely. Much of the information consists of anonymous or second-hand accounts, unsupported assertions, and unattributed sources, with conclusions often reached through questionable methodology rather than verifiable evidence.
Measured against the evidential standards applied by international criminal courts and tribunals, such material would not ordinarily satisfy the requirements for admissibility in an international criminal investigation or prosecution.