Over 80 negotiation days have passed when the trial about the Think Pink scandal concludes on Thursday in Attunda district court in Sollentuna. In any case, if everything goes according to plan.
Good morning and welcome to the main negotiation day 84. It is likely, and hopefully, one might say, the last negotiation day in the case, says Judge Niklas Schüllerqvist in the court on Thursday.
Nearly 150 witnesses have been heard during the trial, and now a total of 11 people risk being convicted in what is the largest environmental crime case that has been handled in a Swedish court.
According to the prosecution, the 11 are together behind the illegal dumping of waste on 21 sites in central Sweden between 2015 and 2020.
The waste, mainly construction and demolition waste, was supposed to be sorted but was instead crushed and dumped or buried. This has been done, among other things, near water protection areas, unprotected stormwater wells, homes, and coastal protection areas.
Harmful waste
The waste has been hazardous both for the environment and for human health.
There are already contaminations in soil and water from these large waste facilities. Over several years, this can lead to harm for both humans and animals, or for all eternity in some places, prosecutor Lise-Lotte Tegle to TT.
At the center of the scandal stands the former CEO Fariba Vancor (formerly Bella Nilsson), also known as "Queen of trash". She has from the beginning been pointed out as a key figure and is the one who risks the longest prison sentence, together with Thomas Nilsson, with whom she founded the company, and TV profile Leif-Ivan Karlsson.
Six years in prison
All three have at times been CEOs of Think Pink, and the prosecutors are seeking six years in prison for all three, as well as for two other defendants.
In his plea last week, prosecutor Anders Gustafsson said it is about criminality of "enormous scope".
It is about several crimes, gross crimes at each site, which could have caused damage on a large scale, he said according to SVT News Stockholm.
Vancor herself denies any crime and the defense has claimed that she did not have insight into how the waste was handled. In her hearing in September, she said they had not broken any laws.
What have we done wrong? We have followed the law. I have been careful to follow the law and that is what we have done, said Vancor.
The prosecution against the 11 people in the Think Pink scandal is the largest environmental crime case that has ended up in a Swedish court. The preliminary investigation consists of around 50,000 pages.
The sites covered by the prosecution are located in 15 municipalities. These are Botkyrka, Eskilstuna, Flen, Gullspång, Haninge, Huddinge, Håbo, Laxå, Norberg, Norrtälje, Skövde, Strängnäs, Uppsala, Västerås, and Östhammar.
Five of the defendants are suspected of gross environmental crimes. Four of these are also suspected of economic crimes.
One person is charged with aiding and abetting gross environmental crime, and the remaining five in the case are suspected of environmental crimes of normal degree.
