Letter from Stockholm: Lundin trial could set corporate precedent

Former executives and a successor company are accused of complicity in Sudanese war crimes in what is now South Sudan

History was made at the Lundin Energy trial in Stockholm even before proceedings began. The prosecution of the company’s former chairman, Ian Lundin, and former chief executive, Alexandre Schneiter, for complicity in war crimes by Sudan’s army against its civilian population is the first war crimes case against a corporation since the Nuremberg trials. With a closing date of March 2026, it is also set to be the longest criminal trial in Swedish history. And it is a testing ground for other investigators in ­Europe mulling their own corporate war crimes prosecutions. Sweden has never seen a trial like it. So many lawyers were present, with each defendant having a team and a third team represe