True Justice: Dutch court rules against Shell, in favour of wives of slain Ogoni leaders

On Wednesday 1St May, 2019, a Dutch Court had ruled in favour of four Nigerian women who sued oil giant Shell.The women, including Esther Kiobel, sued Shell for its alleged role in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian military.

The killings occurred in 1995 during the regime of the late military dictator, Sani Abacha.Shell, which was extracting oil from Ogoni, had argued that the District Court of The Hague lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

Here is a background history of the death by hanging sentence of nine Ogoni indigenes. Shell has been accused of instigating a raft of horrifying human rights violations committed by the Nigerian government against the Ogoni people in the 1990s.

The court ruled otherwise.The District Court of The Hague issued an interim ruling in the case brought by Esther Kiobel and three other women with regard to Shell’s involvement in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian military. It ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, that the court does have jurisdiction of the case and that this should not be time barred.

Esther Kiobel, Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula are suing Shell over what they say is its role in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian military, following a brutal crackdown on Ogoni protests against Shell’s devastating pollution of the region.

Esther Kiobel first filed a case against Shell in New York in 2002, but in 2013 the US Supreme Court ruled that the US did not have jurisdiction to hear the case – meaning the US courts never got to examine the substance of the allegations against Shell.

The Ogoni Nine

Amnesty International has independently documented Shell’s role in killings, rape and torture carried out by the Nigerian government in its effort to crush protests.

Barinem Kiobel, Baribor Bera, Nordu Eawo and Paul Levula were hanged in 1995 after a blatantly unfair trial. Their widows are now demanding compensation and a public apology from Shell for the role the company played in these events. Five other men, including protest leader and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, were executed alongside them. They have become collectively known as the Ogoni Nine.