A Dutch court ruled Monday that multinational oil trader Trafigura's French co-founder could be prosecuted for illegal export of toxic waste, later dumped in Ivory Coast after a stopover in the Netherlands.

"The Amsterdam Appeals Court decided today that Trafigura director Claude Dauphin can be prosecuted," the court said in a statement, adding "he is alleged to have led the... illegal export of waste by Trafigura."

The Amsterdam regional court decided in 2008 not to prosecute Dauphin -- who in 1993 founded the petrol tanker company and remains one of its directors.

Prosecutors appealed the court's decision but were turned down, resulting in another appeal being lodged and the Supreme Court referring the case to the Amsterdam Appeals Court, which reviewed the original decision.

On December 23 it upheld a million-euro fine against Trafigura for violating EU laws on the import and export of toxic waste on board the ship Probo Koala, which was prevented from offloading the residues for treatment in Amsterdam's port on July 2, 2006. The shipment was consequently redirected to Abidjan and dumped on public waste tips around the city.

Trafigura, which denies any link between the waste and subsequent deaths, reached out of court settlements for 33 million euros and 152 million euros in Britain and Ivory Coast that exempted it from legal proceedings.

But a United Nations report published in September 2009 found "strong" evidence blaming the waste for at least 15 deaths and several hospitalisations.

The dumping caused 17 deaths and thousands of cases of poisoning, Ivorian judges said.