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For Immediate Release
May, 20 2009, 03:50pm EDT
Contact:
Jen Nessel, 212.614.6449, jnessel@ccrjustice.org
David Lerner, Riptide Communications, dlerner@riptideonline.com
Royal Dutch Shell to Go to Trial May 27 for Alleged Complicity in Torture and Murder of Nigerian Protesters
NEW YORK
On Wednesday, May 27,
2009 at 10am, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), co-counsel
EarthRights International (ERI), and other human rights attorneys will appear
before Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
New York for a human rights case against the Royal Dutch Shell company and the
head of its Nigerian operation, Brian Anderson.
Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum
and Wiwa v. Anderson are two
lawsuits on behalf of relatives of murdered activists who were fighting for
human rights and environmental justice in Nigeria. The cases charge the
corporation and this key official with complicity in the November 10, 1995 hanging of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and other leaders in the nonviolent opposition to Shell's pattern of
human rights abuses and environmental destruction: John Kpuinen, Saturday
Doobee, Daniel Gbokoo, Felix Nuate, and Dr. Barinem Kiobel. The cases also
include charges for the torture, detention, and forced exile of Mr. Saro-Wiwa's
brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa, and Michael Tema Vizor; and the shooting of Karololo
Kogbara and Uebari N-nah in two attacks on peaceful
protestors.
Jury selection
is expected to last at least 1-2 days. Opening arguments are expected to begin
Thursday, May 28 at the earliest, or early the following
week. Please
check www.wiwavshell.org for
updates.
WHAT: Start of trial in
Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum
and Wiwa v. Anderson
WHEN: Wednesday, May 27,
2009, 10am
WHO: CCR attorneys Jennie
Green and Maria
LaHood, ERI attorneys Marco Simons and Rick Herz, and cooperating attorneys
Judith Brown Chomsky, Anthony
DiCaprio and Beth
Stephens, and Paul
Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone,
Seplow, Harris and Hoffman.
WHERE: United States District Court of
the Southern District of New
York 500 Pearl St. New York, NY
For complete pdf's of the legal briefs and further
background information, click here
or visit www.ccrjustice.org and www.earthrights.org.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
(212) 614-6464LATEST NEWS
Iranian Synagogue 'Completely Destroyed,' Reportedly By US-Israeli Airstrike
The representative for Iran's Jewish community in Parliament said Israel "showed no mercy... during the Jewish holidays and attacked one of our ancient and holy synagogues."
Apr 07, 2026
US-Israeli airstrikes early Tuesday morning reduced a synagogue in Tehran to rubble, according to local reports and footage posted to social media.
The Iranian newspaper Shargh reported on Tuesday that the Rafi-Nia Synagogue, which it described as “one of the most important places for Khorasan Jews to gather and celebrate,” was “completely destroyed” as the US and Israel launched attacks across the city.
Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported that the temple was hit when the residential building next door was attacked. Attacks across Iran overnight reportedly killed more than a dozen people.
A video shows Rabbi Younes Hammami Lalezar, a leader of the country's Jewish community, walking amongst the still-smoking wreckage with emergency response teams. Other photos show Hebrew-language prayer books scattered among the rubble.
Rafi-Nia is one of about 100 synagogues in Iran, including 30 in Tehran, that serve as houses of worship for Iran's Jewish community, the largest in the Middle East outside Israel. The attack came on the sixth day of the Passover holiday.
“The Zionist regime showed no mercy towards this community during the Jewish holidays and attacked one of our ancient and holy synagogues,” said Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, the Jewish community's representative in the Iranian Parliament. “Unfortunately, during this attack, the synagogue building was completely destroyed, and Torah scrolls remain under the rubble.”
While it's the first report of a synagogue being destroyed since the war was launched on February 28, dozens of other religious and historical sites have been damaged and destroyed by US-Israeli bombings.
Israel has denied responsibility for the attack, with an unnamed official telling The Times of Israel that "Israel doesn’t target synagogues."
A separate statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Iran is firing missiles at civilians, Israel is striking terror infrastructure. Missiles on civilians versus precision strikes on terror targets. That’s the difference.”
The comments echoed earlier denials from the US and Israel after a school in Minab, Iran, was one of the first targets of the bombing campaign, killing 168 people, including more than 100 children. The US couldn't have been behind the attack, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, because “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
US investigators later found evidence that the US was behind the attack.
According to the Human Rights Activist Network, a US-based human rights monitor for Iran, at least 1,665 civilians, including 248 children, have been killed in US and Israeli strikes since the war began more than a month ago.
Similar to the destruction of Israel's US-backed war on Gaza, tens of thousands of civilian buildings, including homes, hospitals, schools, and religious sites, have been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The synagogue attack also comes after US President Donald Trump threatened on Easter Sunday to target civilian infrastructure in Iran, including bridges and power plants, and said he was “considering blowing everything up” in Iran if it did not negotiate to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
On Tuesday, Trump issued his most explicitly genocidal threat yet, saying that if Iran did not negotiate, a "whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."
Iran’s minister of culture and Islamic guidance, Abbas Salehi, said that "damage and destruction of the Jewish synagogue building in central Tehran is bitter and distressing.”
“The American-Zionist warmongers have targeted religious sites and Iran’s civilizational heritage. For them, it makes no difference whether one is Muslim, Christian, or Jewish,” he said. "They have targeted the Iranian people, but Iran will remain, and they will be gone."
Najafabadi accused Israel of using “Judaism as a pretext to legitimize their actions,” and accused them of targeting the synagogue “in light of the [Iranian Jewish] community’s firm stance in condemning the regime’s actions and its anti-Zionist positions.”
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"After bombing a school and massacring young girls, the war criminal in the White House is threatening genocide," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
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US Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump's Cabinet to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office following his genocidal threat to wipe out the "whole civilization" of Iran.
"After bombing a school and massacring young girls, the war criminal in the White House is threatening genocide," Tlaib (D-Mich.) wrote on social media. "It's time to invoke the 25th Amendment. This maniac should be removed from office."
Some of Tlaib's colleagues echoed her demand. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) wrote that "Trump is too unhinged, dangerous, and deranged to have the nuclear codes."
"25th Amendment RIGHT NOW," Pocan added.
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) said in response to Trump's openly genocidal Truth Social post Trump "just threatened to slaughter 100 million people."
"It's clear he's unfit to be president, the 25th Amendment must be invoked," wrote Thanedar. "If Vance, Rubio, and the others continue to be spineless cowards, Congress must do everything possible to stop Trump and this war."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who led the push in the US House for a war powers resolution to stop Trump's illegal assault on Iran, told Common Dreams that he also thought the president should be removed.
"When an American president threatens the extinction of a civilization," said Khanna, "we should be looking to invoke the 25th and remove him if Congress is to have value and independence."
The 25th Amendment gives the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet—or a majority of a body established by Congress—to declare the president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" and remove him from the position, elevating the vice president to serve as acting president.
Given the composition of Trump's Cabinet—which is filled with sycophants who lavish the president with praise at every opportunity—any 25th Amendment push would likely be doomed to fail.
But Trump's Cabinet has nevertheless faced growing calls to use the tool since the president's Easter-morning outburst warning Iranian leaders to "open the Fuckin’ Strait [of Hormuz], you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell."
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, warned the president's Cabinet officials on Tuesday that "if you take any part in assisting this, you too will be guilty of the crime of genocide."
"Use the 25th Amendment now to lawfully remove Trump from office," Williams urged. "Congress: This is an impeachable offense. Come back to DC now ready to impeach and convict Trump."
The National Iranian American Council said in a statement that the president's "insane, genocidal" threat to wipe out the "whole civilization" of Iran must be "wholeheartedly condemned."
"Military leaders are not bound to follow unlawful orders, including but not limited to the destruction of civilian targets and making good on this outrageous threat," the group added. "We call on President Trump to recant this abominable threat against 92 million Iranians. If he does not, both Congress and his Cabinet must be prepared to remove him from office via lawful means."
This story has been updated with comment from Rep. Ro Khanna.
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Famed Iranian Musician Holds Sit-In to Shield Power Plant From War Criminal Trump
"I wish for the light of my own life to be extinguished before a more serious stage of infrastructural war turns off the lights of my country’s homes.”
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Iranian composer and tar virtuoso Ali Ghamsari has stationed himself outside of the Damavand power plant in Tehran in defiance of US President Donald Trump's threats to commit war crimes by destroying Iran's entire energy infrastructure.
As Tehran Times reported on Tuesday, Ghamsari said in a message posted to social media that he wanted to sit at the plant and make music to "become a shield for the electricity of 40% of Tehran."
The musician referenced Trump's threats to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Age[s]," and said that his playing outside the plant was an act of symbolic resistance.
"In these days, we are facing irreparable attacks on our country's vital infrastructure, such as bridges and industrial factories," Ghamsari said. "An event that targets Iran and its people to push them back toward the Stone Age... I wish for the light of my own life to be extinguished before a more serious stage of infrastructural war turns off the lights of my country’s homes. I hope my eyes never see even an inch of our soil being separated."
Renowned Iranian composer, Ali Ghamsari and tar virtuoso, announced he will stay at the Damavand Combined Cycle Power Plant.
His plan: Create music there as a symbolic effort to shield Iran's infrastructure from attack. pic.twitter.com/rSHRK6Us4Y
— Iran Screenshot (@iranscreenshot) April 6, 2026
Trump on Tuesday morning issued his most bloodthirsty and genocidal threat to Iran yet, warning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” unless Iran met his demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed for the last several weeks after Trump and Israel launched an unprovoked war.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, argued that the president's threat "meets the threshold for intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national group as set forth in 18 US Code § 1091 prohibiting the crime of genocide," and said Trump could be prosecuted for war crimes should he follow through.
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