Landmark Human Rights Trial Against Royal Dutch/Shell for Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria Postponed

New York, May 26th, 2009 – The beginning of the trial in the landmark human rights lawsuits Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (Shell) and Wiwa v. Anderson has been delayed.  The case had been previously scheduled to begin tomorrow, May 27, 2009 in the Southern District of New York.

Further updates will be provided as they become available.

The case, filed in 1996, is being brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International and other human rights lawyers, on behalf of relatives of murdered activists.  The case charges the defendants with complicity in the November 10, 1995 hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other leaders opposed to Shell’s pattern of human rights and environmental abuses in the Niger Delta.  The case also include claims for the torture, detention, and forced exile of Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa, and Michael Tema Vizor; and the shooting of Karololo Kogbara and Uebari N-nah in two earlier attacks by Nigerian military.

For more information about the case, visit The Case Against Shell website.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.

 

Last modified 

December 18, 2009