Just before Nigerian poet, newspaper columnist, activist and former minister Ken Saro-Wiwa was to be sentenced to death by hanging on 10 November 1995, he wanted to read a statement aloud in the courtroom. According to his son, this is what he wanted to say: "I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell (...) has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come."

Now, after fourteen years of legal wrangling, the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell is indeed on trial for crimes against humanity. In New York, no less, thanks to an obscure US anti-pirate law from 1789. The companies denies any allegations but is accused of having asked the Nigerian government to gag Saro-Wiwa and having paid soldiers to imprison, torture and condemn Nigerian activists to death for denouncing Shell's environmental pollution in the region. No demands have yet been made, but the court case could lead to substantial damages, declining oil sales, and especially, significant damage to the reputation of one of the Netherlands' best known multinationals.

Oil companies on trial The court case against Shell is one of a series of recent lawsuits against large oil companies in which the companies are being accused of crimes in developing countries. The accusations concern (involvement in) environmental damage, collaboration with repressive regimes, and complicity in human rights violations. Oil company Chevron, for example, could face a fine of maximum 27 billion dollars for polluting the jungle in Ecuador. Exxon Mobil is being taken to court by Indonesian villagers from Aceh. Soldiers hired by the oil company reportedly violated human rights. In the Netherlands four Nigerian farmers and environmental organisation Friends of the Earth Netherlands brought a suit against Shell. A court case is also still ongoing against Shell manager Brian Anderson, who headed the company's activities in Nigeria for years. Moreover US securities regulator the SEC is still conducting an investigation into Shell for alleged bribery practices in Nigeria. A subcontractor of the Anglo-Dutch company, Swiss Panalpina, reportedly bribed Nigerian officials on Shell’s behalf.

Back to Nigeria, the mid nineteen nineties. After just over three decades of Shell’s oil extraction in the oil-rich but desperately poor region of Ogoniland, protest from the Nigerian population was growing. Shell was accused of polluting the environment. Moreover the Nigerians felt the local population had seen hardly any financial benefit whatsoever from the oil drilling.

A fierce campaign

The residents united in the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) and Saro-Wiwa was the face of this organisation, also internationally. At the time he told the NRC Handelsblad that “if Shell were to come clean up the mess, we would be able to resume our lives here. Shell made the mess, the technology is theirs.”

At that time the Nigerian government waged a fierce campaign against the activists, and Shell is now accused of being more than simply involved with that. One of the charges in the summons states that in 1990 Shell specifically called on the assistance of a police service which was known locally as "kill and go" because of human rights violations. These troops slaughtered eighty villagers following the request for their help, damaging or destroying almost five hundred homes in the process.

Another example, once again listed in the summons: In 1993 Nigerians protested the construction of a pipeline. Shell subsequently called in the assistance of government troops, who committed "attacks on peaceful protestors” in the presence of Shell employees.

Shortly thereafter Ken Saro-Wiwa was arrested and Shell issued a press release in which the Nigerian was accused of leading a separatist movement. It claimed he was mainly concerned with his own political movement.

Shell also lent practical assistance to the Nigerian police and military on countless occasions, according to the accusations. With the help of a helicopter paid for by Shell, reconnaissance of villages was undertaken in order to prepare for later attacks. Shell provided the military police vehicles. Shell contributed financially both to officers who were involved in attacks on villages and a senior army officer. With regard to this, a Shell spokesperson told the NRC Handelsblad in the past that “you had to pay” for the uniforms and weapons of the units that were protecting Shell.

'A heinous act'

After Ken Saro-Wiwa’s arrest, a special military tribunal was established to investigate the accusations that the activist had murdered other Nigerians. During this trial Saro-Wiwa’s 74-year-old mother was beaten and a total of nine suspects were tortured and denied food. Their lawyers had to withdraw. Shell also reportedly offered “to bribe at least two witnesses to produce false testimonies".

The nine were sentenced to death. Despite fierce international protest, Shell (which had since left the Ogoni region) did not want to speak out on the matter because it involved domestic politics and justice in Nigeria. A week of public commotion later Shell’s CEO Cor Herkströter gave in. He sent a fax to the Nigerian head of state, general Abacha. “Shell tried to persuade the government to grant a pardon,” the company now says about the incident. “To our regret that request – and those of many others - was not granted. We were shocked and saddened when we heard the news.”

Production in Nigeria Nigeria is very important to Shell. 15 percent of all the oil it drills comes from the African country, along with 7 percent of its natural gas production. Leaving Nigeria, even if that is contractually possible, would be disastrous for Shell’s production, and its share price. But staying on will certainly have consequences. Of the 26 deaths that occurred at the company last year, 10 occurred in Nigeria.

Countless countries withdrew their ambassadors from Nigeria in protest against the hangings and government leaders worldwide voiced harsh criticism. South African president at the time Nelson Mandela called the executions a “heinous act”. Great Britain’s prime minister John Major called it “judicial murder”. And US president Bill Clinton concluded that Nigeria had flouted "even the most basic international norms and universal standards of human rights”.

A year later, in 1996, Saro-Wiwa’s son and other relatives of victims of Nigeria’s military violence started a court case in New York with the help of human rights organisations. For years Shell managed to fight the case, primarily because the United States was reportedly not in any way involved in the matter. It became a matter of persistence and continued to the US Supreme Court.

'Part of the solution'

Ultimately the court found in favour of the prosecutors' appeal to an obscure legal provision that was more than two hundred years old. This offers US judges the possibility of allowing non-citizens to bring a civil suit concerning human rights violations even if these violations were committed outside the US. The condition does apply however that the defendant must have a considerable presence in the US – and in Shell’s case that is certainly true, with its petrol stations, corporate buildings and refineries. Shell’s spokespeople in the US and the Netherlands did not want to answer questions, but did send a statement: the charges are “wrong and meaningless.”

Ken Saro-Wiwa, Junior, (born in 1968, currently residing in the UK and Nigeria) recently wrote a piece in the British newspaper The Observer. “The day after my father was hanged, I was asked my opinion of Shell and I didn't hesitate to answer that Shell was part of the problem and must be part of the solution.” The son, whose court case starts Wednesday after a week's postponement, writes that he father was not opposed to oil drilling and production, but that simply having the rights to drill somewhere is not sufficient – and that a day would come when the oil company would realise that as well.

"Ken Saro-Wiwa always maintained that Shell would eventually come to see him as their greatest friend.” But a battle in court will first have to be fought out.