Lawyer Channa Samkalden, and two Ogoni Nine widows, Esther Kiobel (centre) and Victoria Bera (right) in the Dutch Court
The District Court of the Hague has issued an interim ruling in favour of wives of Ogoni leaders killed in 1995 during the military era of Sani Abacha.
The case, which was instituted by four wives of the slain leaders — Esther Kiobel, Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula — accused Shell of being involved in the decision by the Nigerian government that led to the killing of their husbands.
The plaintiffs are also calling on the court to order Shell to hand over more than 100,000 internal documents crucial to the case. Shell’s lawyers have refused to do so, even though these documents were submitted as evidence in the US case.
Shell had said that the Dutch court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, but the court ordered that the case must continue.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the court ordered that the case should not be time barred, while also granting the prayers of the plaintiffs that Shell should hand over the confidential internal documents to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, and that they would have the opportunity to examine witnesses.
Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, supported Kiobel’s legal team to bring the case to the Netherlands in 2017, and detailed Shell’s role in the arrests and executions in a briefing. read more
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