Ruben Schilt leaked secret council documents about polluting Chemours factory

Where should we know Ruben Schilt from?

Is Chemours really closing now? On Wednesday, the Provincial Council of South Holland decided to thoroughly investigate the legal possibilities of such a closure. They think it has gone on long enough, the way the chemical factory has polluted and poisoned the environment since the late 1960s. The pressure on the company has recently increased considerably. This was partly due to publications by Zembla, which showed that Chemours had known for decades that it was emitting hazardous substances. And through a publication of NRC who showed that eggs in the area are also heavily contaminated, and thus contribute to the unhealthy high PFAS levels in the blood of local residents.

But it is also due to an action by Ruben Schilt (22). Schilt had been appointed as a committee member in the Dordrecht municipal council on behalf of the PvdA earlier this year and had seen the ‘closed meeting summons Chemours’ on the agenda just before the summer recess. Interesting, he thought, and he joined us. It turned out that the company had made a settlement offer to Dordrecht and three other surrounding municipalities: in exchange for a sum of millions, the municipalities had to abandon their current civil case against the company, as well as future lawsuits against the company. Undemocratic, Schilt thought. But talking about the offer was not allowed: after all, the meeting was closed. That such an important topic received so little attention he said recently de Volkskrantmade him “freaking angry” – and he decided to broadcast the secret minutes of the meeting to the television program Zembla to leak. (Because he was still recovering from all the reactions, he didn’t want to ask any questions NRC to answer).

Don’t politicians leak information much more often?

Certainly, and local politics can also be a problem. But leaking secret documents is prohibited, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of one year. So shortly after Zembla revealed Chemours’ settlement proposal, Dordrecht Mayor Wouter Kolff announced an external investigation into the leak. He also filed a report. Schilt felt embarrassed, perhaps he was the only one who had downloaded the minutes. Moreover, the city council’s attention shifted from the settlement to the leak. “So then I just said it was me.”

Will Schilt go to jail soon?

Which can. But the actual penalties for leaking politicians are usually lower. Such criminal prosecutions mainly take place around mayoral procedures: a councilor hears who it will be (or not) and leaks the name to the media. The municipality files a report, the National Criminal Investigation Department investigates and finds out the perpetrator (or not) and later the councilor comes before the judge. For example, in 2017, councilor Sjef van Creij was arrested for leaking the name of the new mayor of Den Bosch. Former councilor Jos van Son was also prosecuted for this. They ultimately received community service sentences of sixty hours, twenty of which were conditional, and forty hours respectively. The Public Prosecution Service had demanded fines of one thousand euros.

And then, Schilt said earlier: “If that settlement had come through and I had done nothing, I would have felt worse than if I were in jail for a year.” Like Daniel Ellsberg (the original whistleblower of the Pentagon Papers) along the Merwede, Schilt is now being held in high esteem in Dordrecht. Except by politicians. Mayor Kolff previously emphasized that Dordrecht is putting a lot of effort into the case against Chemours and that it has also been extensively discussed in the council and in public. He “did not recognize himself in the image” that Schilt presented de Volkskrant had described a council that just let it all take its course. Schilt will not worry about that dissatisfaction. Politicians, he said, “like principles, but not if they have consequences. Politicians are the only people I hear saying I shouldn’t have leaked.”