The massive Think Pink environmental trial has entered its second phase at Sweden's Land and Environment Court of Appeal. All ten convicted defendants seek acquittal while prosecutors demand harsher sentences.
Eleven people faced charges in Sweden's largest environmental crime case. Ten received convictions for serious environmental offenses linked to waste company Think Pink's operations in central Sweden between 2015 and 2020.
Now the appeals process begins at Svea Court of Appeal. Prosecutors want tougher penalties for most defendants and seek conviction for television personality Leif-Ivan Karlsson, the only defendant acquitted in the district court.
Prosecutor Linda Schön stated, "We had sought substantially higher sentences for most involved than what they received in the district court."
The exception was Fariba Vancor, the public face of the hyped waste company. She received six years in prison for 19 counts of serious environmental crime. Other defendants received lighter sentences.
What is the Think Pink case about? The defendants allegedly orchestrated illegal dumping of hundreds of thousands of tons of waste at 21 locations across central Sweden. Construction and demolition waste that should have been sorted was instead crushed and buried.
Dumping occurred near water protection zones, unprotected stormwater wells, residential areas, and shoreline protection zones. The case spans 15 municipalities including Uppsala, Västerås, and Stockholm-area communities.
The appeal court will review essentially the same evidence as the district court, though some new hearings are planned. The massive trial is scheduled for 82 hearing days and expected to continue until May next year.
In a parallel case last week, Vancor received an additional 18-month sentence for economic crimes within the company. Another key figure received four months imprisonment.
The scale of this environmental scandal is staggering - the preliminary investigation consists of approximately 50,000 pages. This case reveals serious regulatory failures in Sweden's waste management system that allowed such widespread environmental damage to occur for years.
Södertörn District Court determined serious environmental crimes occurred at 19 of the 21 sites included in the indictment. The case represents one of Sweden's most significant corporate environmental violations in recent history.