In a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday, the Democratic Republic of Congo accuses Apple of making use of minerals that originate from illegal mining in the DRC. Primarily, these are the so-called 3T minerals — tin, tantalum, tungsten — and gold.

UN officials have reported out that some mines are operated by armed groups that are reported to be involved in massacres of the civilian population, widespread sexual assault, rampant looting and other crimes.

“The goal is to show consumers that the product they have in their hands is contaminated by international crimes,” the Belgian lawyer Christophe Marchand, who prepared the DRC‘s case against Apple, told DW.

‘Misleading business practices’

Specifically, the DRC accuses Apple’s French and Belgian subsidiaries of smuggling Congolese raw materials via Rwanda. In addition to “laundering minerals from conflict zones,” one of the complaints filed by the lawyers on behalf of the DRC’s Justice Ministry accuses Apple of employing “misleading business practices to assure consumers that supply chains are clean.”

The aim of the lawsuit is to “confront individuals and companies involved in the chain of extraction, procurement and marketing of natural resources and minerals plundered in the DRC.”

Apple issued a lengthy statement in its own defense: “We strongly dispute these claims. We hold our suppliers to the highest standards in the industry. As conflict in the region escalated earlier this year, we notified our suppliers that their smelters and refiners must suspend sourcing tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold from the DRC and Rwanda.