Defending Against Criminal Charges

Environmental defenders are often unfairly charged with serious criminal offenses. There are numerous examples of violations in different countries. This section will identify the types of criminal charges that are most commonly brought, and outline ten strategies for defending against them.

Types of criminal charges brought against environmental defenders

When environmental defenders are unfairly charged with criminal offenses, the charges are typically brought in one or more of the following ways.

Fabricated criminal charges

The charges are completely fabricated and bear no relation to the individual's pro-environment activities. Common charges are drug possession and weapons possession, but may be even more serious, such as murder.

Examples: Isidro Baldengro, Felipe Arreaga, and Rodolfo Montiel.

Criminalizing speech and protest activity

The charges seek to criminalize the individual's statements and actions concerning environmentally harmful projects or practices. This is most often done through criminal defamation charges, but charges of treason, sedition, and "abetting the turmoil" of a pro-democracy movement have also been brought.

Examples: Carlos Baraona Bray, the Chixoy Community Leaders, Alexsandr Nikitin, and Dai Qing.

Holding leaders criminally liable for the actions of others

The charges seek to hold the individual criminally liable for the actions of others. This is happening with greater frequency in situations where environmental defenders organize the opposition to an environmentally harmful project or practice, and/or organize a protest. If property damage or physical harm occurs during or as a result of the opposition or protest, charges are often automatically brought against the leaders.

This typically happens despite any evidence that the leaders committed the acts in question, encouraged the acts, or had any reason to know that the acts would occur. Charges brought in these situations may include the same crimes with which the actual perpetrators are charged (property damage, assault, murder, etc.); being the "intellectual author" of another person's crime; or even terrorism.

Examples: Tambogrande and Rio Blanco anti-mining leaders in Peru.

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According to legal experts, he is the only Russian citizen ever to be charged so many times with the same crime.

- The Goldman Environmental Foundation, describing the repeated re-trials in the case against environmental defender Alexsandr Nikitin before he was finally acquitted of all charges.