In a ruling issued late last Friday, United States District Court Judge Susan Illston held that the beating and shooting of Nigerian protestors at a Chevron offshore platform may constitute torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international human rights law, expanding the upcoming trial in this case to include these claims.

Four Nigerian plaintiffs and their families are suing Chevron in federal court in San Francisco over a 1998 incident in which Nigerian military and police paid by Chevron and using Chevron helicopters shot and tortured villagers who protested Chevron's oil activities in the desperately poor Niger delta.  Judge Illston had previously ruled that the plaintiffs could proceed to trial on claims under California and Nigerian law, including wrongful death and assault and battery.  The new ruling confirms that there is evidence that these abuses also constitute violations of international law.

"An important part of achieving justice for these victims is affirming that they suffered abuses under international human rights law," said plaintiffs’ counsel Marco Simons, Legal Director at EarthRights International.  "One of the victims' major goals has always been to tell the truth about what they suffered, and the truth is that they were victims of torture and other human rights abuses."

Finding evidence that Chevron’s Nigerian subsidiary "authorized or ratified the alleged conduct at issue," the judge also affirmed that the oil giant was subject to punitive damages at trial.  "The jury will have the opportunity not only to give some measure of redress to these victims, but also to punish Chevron for its reprehensible conduct," said Lauren Teukolsky, an attorney at Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick, LLP (HSKRR).

A jury trial in the case, Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., No. 99-2506, is set for September 29, 2008.  In addition to ERI and HSKRR, the plaintiffs are represented by the private law firms of Traber & Voorhees and Siegel & Yee; the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Paul Hoffman, Cindy Cohn, Robert Newman, Anthony DiCaprio, Michael Sorgen, and Richard Wiebe.