Cucumber crisis company found innocent by German court

A HAMBURG court has found in favour of an Axarquia company which was wrongly accused of being partly responsible for an E.coli intestinal bacteria outbreak in the German city which caused 10s of deaths in May 2011.

Richard Soepenberg from Frunet, the Algarrobo company Hamburg health authorities pointed the finger at during the outbreak, explained that after four years of legal battles a judge has confirmed that it did nothing wrong and it was an error on the authorities’ part.

Soepenberg said the cooperative members were ecstatic over the news, although there is still the chance that the other party may appeal.

As of yet there is no news on the amount the company will receive in damages, although it had initially requested €2.3 million.

Yet Soepenberg declared clearing the company’s name is more important than money.

“Accusing a company in this way can smash it apart in a second, and it can happen to any firm anywhere in the world. Luckily we’ve managed to build it back up from zero and are back to where we were before this crisis, but at the time we lost almost all our customers and suppliers,” the commercial director said.