WISE WINS COURT CASE ON ACTION BAN
(July 17, 2001) After a court case (on the legality of actions against spent fuel transports from Dodewaard NPP to Sellafield) which WISE won in December 2000, the Dodewaard owner (GKN) and the owner of Sellafield (BNFL) took the case to appeal. On 13 July came the verdict: the Amsterdam Court rejected the appeal and confirmed the verdict of December 2000, in which WISE was allowed to carry out actions "in an insistent way".
According to the present Amsterdam Court decision, WISE has in principle the right to undertake actions against the transports. GKN and BNFL must in principle accept such actions, as nuclear energy is subject of national and international public debate. Pending the outcome of the court case, WISE undertook no large actions against the transports but did continue urging others to protest. Therefore, the judge could make no decision about the legality of actions by WISE and considered the freedom of speech to weigh more heavily than BNFL/GKN's interests. Greenpeace however, who effectively blockaded the transports three times, was forbidden to undertake any action in the future which could stop the transport with a penalty of NLG50,000 in case of non-compliance.
WISE is satisfied with the verdict: pre-emptive bans on actions are not on. Direct actions are an essential component of the means available to fight nuclear energy and the transports are carried out on the basis of secret reprocessing contracts with BNFL. Actions will go on - reprocessing must stop!
Documents (press releases, action alerts and general information) on this court case can be found on our web site.
WISE Amsterdam