STOCKHOLM (AP) — A trial began Tuesday in Stockholm of two executives of a Swedish oil exploration and manufacturing firm accused of complicity in warfare crimes in Sudan 20 years in the past by securing the corporate’s oil operations within the African nation.

Prosecutors declare that Ian Lundin, former chairman of Lundin Oil, and Alex Schneiter, its former CEO, supported the Sudanese authorities of former dictator Omar al-Bashir.

They mentioned the 2 executives created “the necessary conditions for the subsidiary’s operations by conducting warfare in a way that entailed the Sudanese military and regime allied militia systematically attacking civilians or at least carrying out systematic attacks in violation of the principles of distinction and proportionality.”

From 1983 to 2005, Sudan was torn aside by a civil warfare between the Muslim-dominated north and Christian south. A separate battle in Darfur, the war-scarred area of western Sudan, started in 2003. Thousands of individuals had been killed and practically 200,000 displaced. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 to change into the world’s youngest nation.

Lundin informed reporters on the Stockholm District Court that the accusations had been “completely false.”

“We look forward to defending ourselves in court,” he mentioned.

In a press release, the prosecution mentioned the 2 held senior positions and “participated in the conclusion of the agreement” involving a proper to seek for and extract oil in a bigger space in southern Sudan “in exchange for the payment of fees and a share in future profits.”

Between May 1999 and March 2003, the Sudanese authorities performed offensive army operations in Block 5A and its neighborhood to realize management of areas for oil prospecting and create the mandatory situations for oil extraction, the prosecution mentioned. During the army operations, extreme violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation had been dedicated, it mentioned.

Al-Bashir was toppled in April 2019 in a preferred rebellion.

Lundin was the operator of a consortium of corporations exploring Block 5A, together with Malaysia’s Petronas Carigali Overseas, OMV (Sudan) Exploration GmbH of Austria, and the Sudanese state-owned oil firm Sudapet Ltd.

The prosecution needs the executives to be banned from conducting enterprise actions for 10 years and the Swedish firm fined 3 million kronor ($272,250), whereas 1.4 billion kronor ($127 million) must be confiscated from Lundin Oil due to financial advantages that had been achieved on account of crimes dedicated as a part of its enterprise actions.

The trial is ready to finish in early 2026. No date for a verdict has been introduced.

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