Chlordecone scandal: justice declares dismissal

It is a filing signed earlier this week in the investigation into the poisoning of the French Antilles with chlordecone, but the fight does not stop there for the victims’ lawyers.

Chlordecone has been detected in 90% of the population living in Guadeloupe and Martinique, according to Santé Publique France. A toxic insecticide product used on banana plantations from the 1970s until 1993, despite knowledge of its harmful and long-lasting effects on health and the environment.

A compensation fund was launched in December 2021 to allow former farm workers to receive compensation after being exposed to chlordecone. Prostate cancers caused by product exposure will be recognized as occupational diseases.

Acknowledgment of the impact of chlordecone… but lack of criminal evidence according to the judges

“A rule of law cannot say that there is a dismissal in the face of an injustice of this gravity” deplored one of the lawyers in this case, Harry Durimel, who is also mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre. He entrusted to Humanity in November 2022 they expect such a decision.

To justify the dismissal, the two judges considered it difficult “report the criminal proof of the facts reported”, “committed 10, 15 or 30 years before the complaints were filed”filed in 2006 and 2007 by associations for poisoning.

The magistrates, on the other hand, recognize the art“environmental damage whose human, economic and social consequences affect and will influence the daily life of the inhabitants for many years”. This is enough to fuel even more the distrust of the population of Guadeloupe and Martinique towards the public authorities and the government, a population that is already harboring a strong feeling of abandonment and anger.

The civil parties have announced their intention appeal and continue the fight at the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.