Friday, May 29, 2009

NEW YORK, May 29 (Reuters) - A civil trial has been further delayed over the alleged involvement of giant oil producer Royal Dutch Shell Plc in the executions of protesters in Nigeria in the 1990s, a U.S. judge’s order said on Friday.

A conference in the case in Manhattan federal court was postponed to Wednesday from Monday, the order said.

No reason was given for the indefinite delay of the trial in the order, signed by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. Jury selection had been previously scheduled for next week.

Shell is accused of human rights abuses, including violations connected with the 1995 hangings of prominent activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters by Nigeria’s then-military government.

Shell has denied allegations of involvement.

The case was brought by relatives of Saro-Wiwa and others under a 1789 U.S. statute, the Alien Tort Claims Act, allowing noncitizens to file cases in U.S. courts for human rights abuses occurring overseas.

The case is Wiwa, et al v Anderson, et al 01-01909 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)