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Dow Jones Newswires: US Court Rejects Shell Motion Over Nigeria Torture Claim -2

Monday October 9th, 2006 / 16h57 
 
However the ruling by Judge Kimba Wood granted Shell’s application for other counts in the lawsuit to be dismissed, relating to extrajudicial killings, the right to life, and property destruction.

The original class action was filed September 2002 in the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of New York by fourteen Nigerian victims, or relatives of deceased victims, of alleged human rights violations.

The complaint accuses the company of having knowingly facilitated attacks by the Nigerian military against unarmed residents after protests against Shell started in Ogoniland in 1992.

The complaint charges that Shell purchased ammunition, used its helicopters and boats and provided logistical support for “Operation Restore Order in Ogoniland”, a military foray into Ogoniland, according to Berger & Montague, the law firm representing the Nigerian plaintiffs.

Shell has always denied being responsible for the human-rights violations committed during that period, when Nigeria was ruled by General Sani Abacha.

Shell stopped operating in Ogoniland in 1993. But the area drew international headlines after writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from his Ogoni tribe were executed by Abacha’s regime in 1995.

The company still holds one license, consisting of seven to eight oil-fields. But Nigerian officials said in September that the government intends to revoke this license because of the company’s inactivity. No date for revoking the license has been set.

-By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9266; [email protected] 
 
Monday October 9th, 2006 / 16h57

Related report with access to relevant Court Order:

U.S. Judge thwarts attempt by Shell lawyers to dismiss Ogoni charges of ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘torture’ against Royal Dutch Shell

 

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