Italian Supreme Court Quashes Convictions of Prosecutors in Case against Eni and Shell

The Corner House welcomes the 18 June decision by the Italian Supreme Court to overturn the conviction of Fabio de Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro, the two lead prosecutors in the Milan trial of oil multinationals Eni and Shell and others for alleged bribery in the acquisition of the OPL 245 oil field in Nigeria.

The prosecutors had wrongly been accused and sentenced by lower courts for “refusing to perform an official act,” based on their alleged failure to file documents by a deadline – even though the cited documents were never actually in the possession of the two prosecutors.

The Supreme Court wholly rejected the allegations, ruling that "the facts do not exist." In effect, the Supreme Court found that the prosecutors had no case whatsoever to answer and the convictions were wholly unlawful.

Here is a joint statement issued on 23 June by The Corner House together with HEDA of Nigeria, Re:Common of Italy and Hawkmoth of The Netherlands.