Shell appeal over Nigerian executions rejected By FT.com staff Published: March 26 2001 16:11GMT | Last Updated: March 26 2001 19:52GMT
The US Supreme Court on Monday allowed Royal Dutch Petroleum and sister company Shell to be sued in US courts for alleged involvement in the torture and murder of environmental activists in Nigeria.
The court reinstated the lawsuit and dismissed appeals by the two oil companies that the case could only be heard in the UK where Shell is based, despite an earlier court decision to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 1996 by relatives of executed activists Ken Saro-Wiwa and John Kpuinen, alleges Shell Petroleum Development of Nigeria, an affiliate of the Royal Dutch group, recruited Nigerian police and military to terrorise villages and intimidate opposition to its oil exploration activities in the Ogoni region of Nigeria.
The suit also maintains Royal Dutch/Shell helped to fabricate evidence in the trial of Saro-Wiwa and Kpuinen that led to their execution in 1995.
In upholding the suit, filed under a US law that allows lawsuits against companies involved in human rights abuses anywhere in world, the Supreme Court said that plaintiffs' choice of location for a suit should be given priority wherever possible.
The oil companies objected that by allowing the case, the US courts would be acting as "de facto International Courts of Justice." However, the Supreme Court was swayed by arguments from the plaintiffs that the companies' corporate presence in the USA was substantial enough to justify US jurisdiction.
The case can now return to pre-trial proceedings in New York.