A London judgment that blamed BHP for the Mariana (MG) dam collapse was taken as new hope that the defendant’s acquittal in the criminal case would be overturned, say those affected by the tragedy who heard from police. sheet.
This Friday (14th), a British court found Anglo-Australian BHP, one of Samarco’s managers along with Vale, responsible for killing 19 people and dumping around 40 million cubic meters of waste into the environment 10 years ago.
“This shows that the Brazilian judiciary is guilty and people need to be held accountable. In addition to fair compensation, which we also want, those responsible need to be punished so that crimes like this never happen again,” said victim Monica dos Santos.
She referred to a federal court ruling last November that acquitted mining company Samarco and its controlling companies Vale and BHP, as well as seven other defendants, over the Fundandan dam collapse.
The MPF (Federal Public Ministry) has appealed this decision, but the appeal has not yet been analysed.
In the UK judgment, Judge Finola O’Farrell said in her summary of the judgment that BHP should not have continued to raise the dam’s height before it collapsed.
According to the judgment, this process “was a direct and proximate cause of the dam failure and created liability for BHP.”
The company said in a statement that it intends to appeal the decision and “strengthens its commitment to the compensation process in Brazil” that public authorities and the mining company signed last year.
Recall that since 2015, it has disbursed around R$70 billion in direct payments to those affected, “including 240,000 UK claimants.”
Luzia Queiroz, a resident of the affected Paracatu de Baixo district, said the decision had revived a sense of justice for those affected.
“It’s not our country, Brazil, it’s the UK, but yes, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel to understand that the basis of everything is still people who are not criminalized and are living well,” he says.
Monica dos Santos, a resident of Bento Rodríguez, another area affected by the dam collapse, said she believes the overseas process will guarantee greater compensation than the amount stipulated in the renegotiation agreement signed in Brazil.
“Believing in the UK’s actions, I have not received a penny since the incident. And since this renegotiated agreement benefited businesses, states and the (federal) government, not those affected, better things will surely come.”
According to the terms of the agreement signed in Brazil, victims who receive compensation must waive all claims against domestic and foreign mining companies.
BHP’s interlocutors claim that these exemptions have been justified by the decisions of the British courts, which means that the planned amount of compensation could reach R$260 billion, and that the process is proceeding at half the size originally planned.
The next phase of action, scheduled for January 2027, will discuss the extent of the damage caused to those affected by the dam collapse. Only after this stage will a UK court decide on the amount of compensation, something that is expected to happen between 2028 and 2029.
Until then, it is possible that an agreement can be reached among the parties involved.
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