Nearly ten years after major mobilizations in the United States against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Northern Dakota, Non -Governmental Environmental Organization Greenpeace He is being tried by the Energy Transfer group for motivating violence and defamation. The trial begins tomorrow in Mandan, North Dakota and, if convicted, he may face a fine of $ 300 million.

“If Energy Transfer achieves high compensation at Greenpeace, this will encourage other businesses to take similar actions to justice and significantly discourage protest movements,” warns Michael Gerrard, a professor of law at Columbia University. trial that will last five weeks.

At the heart of this court dispute, the 2016-2017 demonstrations in the northern Dakota against the Energy Transfer Dakota Access Pipeline plan for the construction of an oil station, which would pass through the land of the indigenous race of Standing Rock and from the Standing Rock and from the Standing Rock and from the Standing Rock. Sacred places threatening their sources of drinking water. The demonstrations resulted in hundreds of arrests and injuries.

The Dakota Access Pipeline plan was re -activated during the first presidential term of Donald Trump.

“Greenpeace’s actions on Standing Rock were peaceful, legal and in accordance with our values ​​(…) We were allies and in no way organizers,” said Suma Raman of Greenpeace USA. “What happens is that the big oil companies are trying to silence Greenpeace and the movement as a whole.”

The organization promotes the right to freedom of expression and asserts that the case has all the characteristics of the “abusive process” with the aim of silencing any criticism.

Energy Transfer replies that the lawsuit against Greenpeace relates to the breach of the law by the environmental organization and does not concern freedom of expression.

In 2019, federal justice had rejected Energy Transfer’s appeal against many environmental non -governmental organizations including Greenpeace. The group then appealed to the Justice of the North Dakota.

Greenpeace, for its part, has appealed to the Netherlands, where the organization’s headquarters are located against Energy Transfer, citing European legislation to combat abusive procedures.