Costa Rica News (Prensa Latina) – Canadian mining transnational Infinito Gold is not fulfilling the penal sentences issued by Costa Rican courts, despite all the appeals presented by the enterprise’s lawyers being rejected by the courts, said website www.elpais.cr.
Since last year, the two penal sentences against Jorge Lobo and Nicolas Boeglin, professors of the University of Costa Rica, for processes of alleged defamation presented by the company, are still in force.
Professor Jorge Arturo Lobo said the accusations might have been to provoke a self-censorship of the discussion, and that the fact that the transnational has not paid what it is required is not understandable after they spent one million dollars in publicity campaigns and presenting demands.
Infinito Gold is not complying with the Costa Rican judicial system, as it should pay 200,000 dollars, but instead, it threatens to take Costa Rica to a CIADI international lawsuit since April 2013.
Meanwhile, Boeglin, professor of international laws, said it is not recommended that the company will appeal to an international arbitration against Costa Rica when it has failed a local penal sentence and has not paid for the environmental damage caused by its mining project.
In Crucitas de San Carlos, Infinito Gold wanted to build a gold mine open pit, three kilometers of the river San Juan, on the border with Nicaragua, but because of illegalities, lost permits and their work has been suspended since 2010 by order of the courts.
A decision of the Administrative Court of November 25, 2010, sentenced the company to pay compensation to the Central American country for environmental damage in the area.
The transnational has lost many legal battles since the Supreme Court of Costa Rica annuled the permission for Infinito Gold and confirmed the prohibition of mining works at the open.
From Prensa Latina
