A Dutch court Friday upheld a $1.3 million criminal fine for oil trading company Trafigura in the Amsterdam part of a hazardous waste drama that allegedly left 15 people dead and sickened thousands more in Ivory Coast in 2006.

The Amsterdam Appeals Court judgment reinforces a 2010 lower court ruling that found the company illegally instructed the ship Probo Koala to leave the Netherlands with toxic waste in July 2006 after deciding it would be cheaper to dispose of it elsewhere.

The company denies any wrongdoing in the actual dumping, saying it paid a local contractor in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to dispose of the waste and wasn't responsible for it being dumped at sites around the city. It also claims the waste wasn't highly toxic anyway.

The Dutch court said Friday it considers it "proven" that the company knew the waste was toxic and tried to conceal it.

"Trafigura hid the damaging nature of the waste at delivery to Amsterdam Port Services and then that Trafigura illegally exported the waste to Ivory Coast," the court said in a summary of its ruling.

Trafigura Beheer BV paid the Ivory Coast government $192 million for cleanup in 2007 and said it would pay another $49 million to settle a British-filed class action suit in 2009, without admitting fault.

Under the British settlement, all sides agreed the waste could only have caused minor ailments. But the U.N.'s top expert on toxic waste, Okechukwu Ibeanu, said in a 2009 report that "there seems to be strong ... evidence that the reported deaths and adverse health consequences are related to the dumping of the waste from the Probo Koala."

Ibeanu said 15 people died and 69 were hospitalized after the waste was offloaded in Abidjan in August 2006.

Friday's ruling found that Amsterdam Port Services improperly allowed the Probo Koala to leave once it knew the ship was carrying waste the ship wasn't qualified to dispose of. But the court acquitted the Port of wrongdoing because it had a permit from the city.

It rejected charges against the city for granting the permit, saying the city's decision was a blunder but it is immune from prosecution in the case.

(AP / The Republic, 23/12/2011)