No conviction for self-proclaimed chocolate criminal
On Thursday the criminal court in Amsterdam threw out a case against reporter Teun van de Keuken for complicity in slavery. Van de Keuken, who co-hosts a consumer advocacy show on TV called ‘Keuringsdienst van Waarde’ (a pun referring to the Dutch Food and Drug Administration), instigated the case against himself after eating a number of chocolate bars that he claimed were produced by slaves. During the case, the court heard testimony of a former slave who was forced to work on a cocoa plantation when he was a child.
The case was dismissed on technical grounds, since Van de Keuken himself was not a harmed party, and therefore could not initiate the prosecution against himself. Van de Keuken is now contemplating a civil suit.
Van de Keuken started his own guaranteed slave-free chocolate brand two years ago called Tony’s Chocolonely, using cocoa produced by Ghana’s Kuapa Kokoo co-op. The chocolate bars were made in co-operation with Dutch fair trade company Max Havelaar.
Earlier this year, Van de Keuken was sued unsuccessfully by chocolate importer Bellissimo Foods, who claimed that it is impossible to produce slave-free chocolate. Irony is dead.
[…] No conviction for self-proclaimed chocolate criminal. […]
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