A group of four widows who had sought to hold Shell liable for damages in the Netherlands after their anti-oil activist husbands were executed by the Nigerian government in 1995 have cancelled further legal proceedings, their lawyer said on Monday.
"Obviously this is not without disappointment and frustration," said lawyer Channa Samkalden in a statement announcing that the four widows cancelled an appeal launched after the Hague District Court rejected their case earlier this year. He stated that the process so far has been lengthy and demanding, and has made the widows re-live horrible events, "while the outcome is most uncertain."
The widow's husbands had been among a group that later became known as the "Ogoni Nine," who were arrested and hanged after a flawed trial that turned international opinion against Nigeria's then-military rulers.
Shell struck a $15.5 million settlement in 2009 in the United States with relatives of some families without acknowledging wrongdoing, but others continued trying to hold the company responsible in foreign courts after exhausting legal possibilities in Nigeria.
In March, the Hague court ruled there was not enough evidence to support the widows' assertion that Shell had bribed witnesses to give false testimony in the trial that led to the men's executions.
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