shell to stand trial for involvement in execution of nigerian activists

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a writer and leading activist demanding rights for Nigeria’s Ogoni people, including an end to Shell’s gas flaring in Ogoni regions. Gas flares are open-air fires that burn the natural gas that is released when oil is extracted from the ground. Shell and other major oil producers in Nigeria have continued to practice gas flaring for decades despite the known dangers to human health and local ecosystems, the large greenhouse gas emissions, the natural gas wastage, and the fact that the practice has been illegal in Nigeria since 1984.

As a result of his activism, Saro-Wiwa was detained, imprisoned and tortured throughout the early 1990s. Substantial evidence indicates Shell collaborated with the Nigerian government in a campaign of brutal crackdowns and also bribed witnesses to give false testimony that culminated in the execution of Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues.

The Ogoni 9 were executed on November 10, 1995, after a military tribunal convicted them on what were widely viewed as trumped-up charges of murdering four political rivals. Many believe their real offence was leading protests against the operations of multinational companies in Ogoniland, an oil-rich region in south eastern Nigeria, and the Nigerian military junta whom they accused of pocketing oil wealth while leaving the locals to live in misery.

After more than 13 years, the victims' relatives will finally get to challenge the deaths in a U.S. court.

“When your father … is executed for a crime he did not commit, very publicly like that, it’s painful,” said Saro-Wiwa's son.

“And to live for 12 years without justice, without getting a sense of relief, seeing the perpetrators of the crimes continuing to benefit from their crimes, these are difficult things for any human being to live with.”

brought to justice

Days after a judge ruled Shell would definitely stand trial, an alliance of environmental and human rights groups, including Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, and PLATFORM/Remember Saro-Wiwa, announced they have formed a global campaign to hold Shell accountable and demand that it stop gas flaring in Nigeria. The campaign, collectively know as ShellGuilty calls for Shell to come clean about its corporate irresponsibility, human rights abuses, and record of environmental devastation.

If Shell is found to be liable in the court case, it will send shock waves through corporate boardrooms worldwide and send a signal that corporations can be held liable for committing human rights abuses no matter where they occur. And even if Shell, with its massive resources, is somehow able to prevail in court and convince the jury that it wasn’t responsible for the crimes that no-one disputes happened, we have an unprecedented opportunity – and responsibility – to do everything we can to hold Shell accountable for its ongoing crimes against people and the planet we all depend on.

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Photo credits: ShellGuilty.com; FoEI