"Nigeria/Netherlands: Kiobel witness hearing key chance to hold Shell to account over human rights abuses," 8 Oct 2019

A witness hearing examining Shell's role in the execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s is a key opportunity to hold the oil giant to account over its alleged complicity in human rights abuses, Amnesty International said. 

The Kiobel v. Shell case resumes at The Hague on 8 October and will for the first time hear accounts from individuals who accuse Shell of offering them bribes to give fake testimonies that led to the "Ogoni Nine"... being sentenced to death and executed... 

"For more than twenty years Shell has escaped scrutiny over its role in these tragic events..." said Mark Dummett, Business and Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International... 

The 'Ogoni Nine' as they were known, were accused of being involved in the murder of four Ogoni chiefs known to be opponents of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)...

On 1 May, the court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, that it did have jurisdiction of the case and that this should not be time barred. It also ruled that Shell should hand over some confidential internal documents to the plaintiffs' lawyers...