The main judge’s unknown connection to the mining company

“I didn’t think it would make me crazy”

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BOLIDEN–ARICA. 796 poison-affected residents from Arica sue the mining giant Boliden in the Swedish Court of Appeal – but lose.

What they never learn is that the main judge, Erik Sundström, has unreported connections to the company.

Sundström grew up in the mining community of Boliden, where his father worked for the company for 25 years. He himself worked there in the summer, and the family bought their home directly from the mining company.

Forty years ago, the mining company Boliden sent 20,000 tons of toxic wet mill sludge to the city of Arica in northern Chile. The waste has never been cleaned up and children and adults continue to suffer from serious illnesses.

The UN assesses that 12,000 people have been exposed to the toxins, and that the disaster will worsen further if nothing is done.

In September 2013, 796 poison victims sued Aricabor Boliden before a Swedish court. The district court considered that it was not proven that Boliden had acted carelessly and acquitted the company.

The Arica side pointed out that the court had disregarded a ruling by Chile’s Supreme Court, which ruled that Arica residents’ arsenic levels were dangerous.

This was stated in the appeal.

And the hope that Boliden would be held responsible grew.

March 27, 2019 fell judgment of the Court of Appeal. The new evidence had not been considered at all.

While the district court applied Chilean law – because the waste was dumped in Arica and the victims were Chilean citizens – the court of appeal attached importance to the fact that the damaging act took place during loading in Skelleftehamn, and that therefore Swedish law should apply.

With this assessment, Swedish statutes of limitations followed – which took on a decisive importance.

– Since a claim for damages according to Swedish law is time-barred after ten years, Arica Victim’s (eds. note limited partnership that represented the victims) claim is simply too old, said chief judge Erik Sundström.

The judgment took up no more than ten pages.

But there was something that neither the poison victims nor their lawyers knew.

Connections to the mining company

But one winter day in 2024, Aftonbladet is reached by a tip.

Freelance journalist Daniel Kristoffersson has taken an interest in the court case and reviewed the process. And discovered unknown connections between the head judge and Boliden.

Sundström took office in 2018 as president of the Court of Appeal in the Court of Appeal for Upper Norrland and before that had made a name for himself as a judge with high integrity.

But Kristoffersson’s research was able to reveal that there were connections between Sundström and the mining company, which were never reported:

The President of the Court of Appeal grew up in Boliden. As a two-year-old, he moved there. He was registered there until he turned 25.

And his father worked as a foreman at Boliden for 25 years.

A judge must be independent and impartial, without personal interests or relationships that could influence the ability to judge fairly. Connections that may affect impartiality must be stated before the trial begins, according to good judicial practice.

In May 2024, we call Erik Sundström to ask why he never reported these tapes.

– I didn’t think it would make me crazy to try the case, he says.

Did you ever consider informing the other party about this?

– It is wise to bring up things that you can imagine that the parties have views on. But this was not at that level.

You have no other connections to Boliden?

– No, I haven’t.

After a short break, he states that he himself had a shorter job at Boliden.

– I cut grass as a youth for a summer job.

Only when we ask about people close to him does he admit that the father worked at the company.

– Yes, so my late father worked there once upon a time. Like a bulldozer or something like that.

The President of the Court of Appeal emphasizes that his father worked at the mining company’s operations in Boliden and not at Rönnskärsverken. However, there are no further ties to Boliden, assures Sundström.

We decide to move on.

And begins to request information from old archives, a process that can take weeks, if not months.

During the waiting period, we decide to try to understand Boliden’s role and how the society around the mine was shaped by the company’s influence.

Was a model society

It is rattling inside the Royal Library in Stockholm. Another microfilm is fed.

We go through the local newspaper Norran for a few years in the mid-1980s.

The mining town of Boliden, where Sundström grew up, appears as a model community. A place where the company permeates every aspect of life. Family security and finances, community life, society’s very identity.

In an article on June 29, 1983, a local S politician says that the residents of the mining town “always had a good time thanks to Bolidenbolaget.”

We continue reading. And the image expands.

The mining company is presented as a lifeline and hope for the future in the region, at a time when many other businesses are forced to shut down.

“The mine saves the region” reads an article headline from June 17, 1983, in connection with the expansion of the plant in Enåsen.

We understand that the case in the Court of Appeal was not just a trial for damages.

Without a fight between a group of poor people from the other side of the world – and the mining company that was and still is one of the most influential players in the region.

Has several connections to Boliden

Today live Erik Sundström in Umeå together with his wife, who also grew up in Boliden. In his social media we find acquaintances who worked at Boliden’s mines or at Rönnskärsverken during the 1980s, the time when the toxic waste was sent to Arica. Others work at the company today.

Finally, the documents we have been waiting for come from the archives. And we make another discovery.

In 1980, Erik Sundström and his parents left their apartment and moved to a villa on Storgatan in the middle of Boliden.

The house is owned by the mining company.

After a few years as tenants, something happens. The family gets an opportunity to buy the villa outright – directly from Boliden. The sale takes place in December 1981.

Purchase price: SEK 130,000.

The price is approximately 20 percent lower than what the company bought the property for seven years earlier – this despite housing prices in Upper Norrland rising sharply during the same period, according to Statistics Sweden. We look into the yellowed purchase documents without getting any answers as to why.

Erik Sundström is registered in the house on Storgatan while the ships with sewage sludge reach Arica, until 1986.

Rodrigo Pino, spokesperson for the 796 Arica residents, reacts with dismay at the information.

– We had all trusted that the court was impartial. That one of the judges had such a clear conflict of interest makes me sad and disappointed. The possibility of getting justice, which we hoped for, never existed, he says.

Lawyer Johan Öberg, who was one of Aricasidan’s representatives, does not judge that Sundström’s connections are sufficient to be judged as equal. Any recovery is also not possible in practice as the limited partnership that represented the victims was declared bankruptafter being denied leave to appeal in the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, Johan Öberg believes that Erik Sundström’s actions were inappropriate.

– He should have reported his background. As a judge, it is incredibly important to lay the cards on the table before a hearing and give the parties the opportunity to decide whether trust in the judge has been shaken or not. It has to do with trust in the entire judicial system.

Footnote: Erik Sundström tells Aftonbladet: “That I would have a strong connection to Boliden feels incredibly far-fetched”. Read Erik Sundström’s answer in its entirety here.

Daniel Kristoffersson

Research