LEAD: Chevron fined 9 billion dollars in Ecuador

Jan 4, 2012, 19:20 GMT

Quito - An appeals court in Ecuador has upheld a ruling ordering oil giant Chevron to pay a fine of 9.5 billion dollars for environmental damage in Ecuador's Amazonian region.

The decision was released late Tuesday. Chevron slammed it as 'illegitimate.'

'Today's decision is another glaring example of the politicization and corruption of Ecuador's judiciary, which has plagued this fraudulent case from the start,' the firm said in a statement posted on its website.

The government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was happy with the ruling.

'Justice has been done,' Correa said Wednesday.

He congratulated the Amazonian communities who filed the complaint against Chevron, in what Correa described as an 'unequal' case given the US-based multinational's financial power.

Chevron stressed that it would not comply with the ruling.

'Chevron does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud.'

The fine against Chevron, issued by a lower court in February, would be doubled if the oil giant does not apologize for its wrongdoing.

Texaco, which has belonged to Chevron since 2001, was found to have caused environmental damage during its operations in the Ecuadorian rain forest between 1964 and 1990. Chevron stressed that Texaco 'fully remediated its share of environmental impacts.'

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