Courts rule on Dow pesticide and De Menezes cases

Courts in the U.S. and Britain arrived at their respective verdicts in two cases we’ve covered this year.

First, a Los Angeles court ruled that Dow Chemicals and Dole Fruit were both liable in a claim brought up by former Nicaraguan plantation workers. The plaintiffs said that they became sterile after having worked with a now-banned pesticide in the 1970s. In addition to the guilty verdict, the jury awarded six who were “substantially harmed” $3.3 million.

Meanwhile, a London court found the city’s Metropolitan Police guilty of breaking health and safety laws in the 2005 murder of Jean Charles de Menezes. De Menezes was a Brazilian electrician slain by officers who mistook him for a suspected terrorist. The verdict was met by an increased public outcry for Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign and indignation from some of de Menezes’ family:

"I think true justice would be for them to go to prison, at least for some time so that they could think about what they did," Maria Beatriz Figueiredo told The Associated Press on Friday at her home in the remote village of Gonzaga in southeastern Brazil…

"They can't just go out into the middle of the street shooting someone in the middle of all those people," she said. "It cannot be right. And the real terrorist is still alive, it is revolting."

Image- Wired – Listening Post

Sources- BBC News, AFP, The Latin Americanist, CNN, Guardian UK, Canadian Press