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10/13/2005:

"Diane Wilson: I’m Not Going to Jail Until Warren Andersen Is Extradited to India"

Diane Wilson is facing four months of jail in Texas.

But she now says that she’s not going to jail until Warren Andersen, the former CEO of Union Carbide, is extradited to face manslaughter charges in Bhopal, India.

“I’m going to go on the lam,” Wilson told Corporate Crime Reporter today. “I realize I have to go to jail. I’m quite willing to do that. But Warren Andersen – who jumped bail 13 years ago – needs to go to jail too. I’m going to stay out to expose the inequality – corporate executives don’t go to jail for high crimes and little citizens go to jail for misdemeanors.”

In August 2002, Wilson scaled a Dow Chemical facility in Seadrift, Texas and unfurled a banner that read – “Dow Responsible for Bhopal.”

When she came down, she was arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

In January 2003, Wilson was convicted of that charge and sentenced to four months in prison and fined $2,000.

An appellate court affirmed her conviction earlier this month.

She is out on a $1,500 bond.

Andersen was CEO of Union Carbide on December 3, 1984 when a deadly gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, India poisoned at least 500,000 people.

More than 8,000 people died within three days and over 20,000 people have died to date as a result of their exposure.

Andersen was charged with manslaughter by prosecutors in Bhopal.

He reportedly lives in Bridgehampton, New York.
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