The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing in the appeal of Bowoto v. Chevron [2], ERI's case involving abuses against Nigerian protestors, for June 14, 2010, in San Francisco.  In 1998, ethnic Ilaje villagers held a protest on Chevron's Parabe platform, an offshore oil facility in the Niger Delta.  The Ilajes were protesting the environmental and economic devastation that oil activities had visited upon their communities.  (A detailed account of their grievances is found in The Marginalisation of the Ilajes [3], which the Ilajes submitted to the local government shortly before their protest.)  A day after acknowledging that the Ilajes were "unarmed" and the situation was "calm," [4] Chevron called in Nigerian military forces to evict the protestors, flying armed soldiers to the platform in Chevron helicopters.  The soldiers shot several protestors, killing two and wounding at least two others, and detained and tortured at least ten others.

In 2008, a jury found that Chevron was not liable for the shootings and torture, but ERI and our co-counsel believe there were several important errors in the trial.  We filed the appeal last year, and in June three judges of the Ninth Circuit will hear our arguments.  In recognition of the importance of the case, the Ninth Circuit has allotted a total of 40 minutes for the argument--twice as long as in most cases.

Coincidentally, another important case alleging human rights abuses is being heard on the same day at the same courthouse.  The Ninth Circuit will also hear the appeal in Padilla v. Yoo, a case challenging the constitutionality of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" and prolonged arbitrary detention used against terrorism suspects under the Bush administration.  ERI has no involvement in that case, but it's not often that a federal court of appeals considers a case involving torture and arbitrary detention--let alone two in the same day.  The cases are in different courtrooms, so it's possible that three judges could be hearing about torture of detainees in Nigeria at the same time that another three judges across the hall are hearing about torture of detainees in the United States.