Parisian investigating judges have ordered the nuclear giant Areva to stand trial, suspected of sharing responsibility for the events near the Arlit uranium mine in Niger.
Areva will soon be tried for “involuntary injury resulting from clumsiness, imprudence, inattention, negligence, or failure to observe a legal duty of care and safety, resulting in total work incapacity for more than three months”. The order to refer the case to the criminal court dates from September 26.
For its part, Areva declined to comment.
Up to 1,139 Days of Captivity
“It is unacceptable to see that, despite the many warnings brought to Areva’s attention, nothing serious was implemented to protect employees at the sites”, reacted the lawyer for one of the former hostages, Pierre Legrand, who filed a complaint in 2013.
Areva is suspected of having underestimated the risk of attacks by the organization AQMI against the mining site and of failing to implement appropriate security measures for all employees.
On the night of September 15-16, 2010, five French nationals, Françoise and Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand, Marc Féret and Thierry Dol, a Malagasy national, Jean-Claude Rakotoarilalao, and a Togolese national, Alex Awando, were kidnapped in Arlit by armed men. After five months in captivity, on February 25, 2011, Françoise Larribe, who was ill, was released along with the Malagasy and Togolese employees, after 1,139 days of detention in the Sahel desert.