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Lawsuit (SLAPP)

1 Dec 2019

FIAN Belgium

Status: ONGOING

Date lawsuit was filed
1 Dec 2019
Date accuracy
Year and Month Correct
FIAN Belgium
Criminal
Not applicable
Environmental concerns group
Lawsuits: SLAPPs
Legal claims: Defamation
Lawsuit Brought By: Company
Target: Group, Organisation or Institution
Location of Filing: Luxembourg
Location of Incident: Luxembourg
Socfin Luxembourg Palm trees & oil, Rubber Company Response

Sources

In December 2019, 4 NGOs and 7 of their employees were called to appear before an investigating judge in Luxembourg following a defamation lawsuit initiated by the agro-industrial multinational SOCFIN. The complaint reportedly came following the publication of a report by human rights NGO FIAN Belgium in Sierra Leone, as well as a series of press releases from the allegedly offending NGOs (11.11.11, CNCD-11.11.11, FIAN Belgium, SOS Faim Belgique, and SOS Faim Luxembourg) and an awareness-raising initiative carried out at the Socfin General Assembly in Luxembourg in May 2019. The latter was aimed at raising public awareness of the situation of the affected communities and at challenging the company's managers. The complaints include calumny, insults, and violation of privacy. In April 2021, the judicial investigation was still ongoing.