http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/brent/may19.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
Date: Friday 19th May.
LONDON, Friday, 19 May 1995--Shell failed today in a legal attempt to remove all the Greenpeace activists occupying the Brent Spar oil platform. At a hearing at the Edinburgh Court of Session, Lord Johnston ordered the ejection of one protestor, Jonathan Castle.
The Judge refused to make an eviction order against the other protestors aboard the rig because under Scots law the court did not usually grant orders against unknown and unnamed people.
Shell's failure to secure an eviction order against all the Greenpeace protestors means that they are running out of time in their battle to dump the Brent Spar. This afternoon Greenpeace goes to the High Court in London to seek leave for a Judicial Review to challenge the legality of the licence to dump granted by the UK Government. If this court action is successful it will stop Shell from carrying out the dumping.
Today's court ruling means that Messengers at Arms can now board the Brent Spar and arrest Jonathan Castle.
"Shell has failed to get court backing to remove Greenpeace," said Greenpeace spokesperson Simon Reddy outside the court. "The Greenpeace campaign will continue until Shell faces up to its environmental obligations and drops its plan to abandon tons of toxic waste at sea."
The Greepeace activists, all volunteers, will continue to occupy the toxic-laden platform. They will wait to see how the warrant will be served and seek legal advice.
International pressure on the UK Government to revoke its permission to allow Shell to dump the platform was stepped up again last night, when the European Parliament adopted resolutions opposing the planned dumping of the Brent Spar and other offshore installations. The Parliament said dumping the installations would "deliberately pollute the marine environment".
The European Parliament sent their objections to North Sea Conference member states, asking them to take all possible steps to prevent the dumping of the Brent Spar and the other off shore platforms at their meeting in Denmark (June 8-9).
This adds to the growing list of protests from both within and outside the UK. In the past week, the EU Environment Commissioner, the Belgian, Danish and Icelandic Governments and the Labour UK Opposition Party have all objected to the dumping.
THE LATEST
The Norwegian Parliament has decided that the first Norwegian oil rig about to be put out of service, will not be dumped but taken ashore, dismantled and recycled. The Energy and Environment Committee of the Parliament announced this morning that the first platform, in the Frigg field in the Norwegian EEZ, would be dealt with onshore.
For more information: Simon Reddy, Edinburgh 0374 695 814, Mary Morrison Shetland 01595 694 099, or Desley Mather 0171 833 0600