NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge canceled a hearing on Wednesday in the civil trial of Royal Dutch Shell over the alleged involvement of the giant oil producer in the executions of protesters in Nigeria in the 1990s.
Presiding Judge Kimba Wood in U.S. District Court in Manhattan had already postponed the trial indefinitely. In a court order on Wednesday, she said the hearing in the case had also been postponed indefinitely. No reason was given, and no new dates were announced.
Shell is accused of human rights abuses, including violations connected with the 1995 hangings of prominent activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters by Nigeria’s then-military government.
Shell has denied allegations of involvement.
The case was brought by relatives of Saro-Wiwa and others under a 1789 U.S. statute, the Alien Tort Claims Act, allowing noncitizens to file cases in U.S. courts for human rights abuses occurring overseas.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York reinstated a related case against Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd.
The cases are Wiwa et al v Royal Dutch Shell et al 96-08386, Wiwa et al v Anderson et al 01-01909 and Wiwa v Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Reporting by Christine Kearney and Grant McCool, editing by Matthew Lewis)
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
