OIL GIANT EXXONMOBIL SETTLES LONG-RUNNING TORTURE CASE IN INDONESIA

Tue 16 May 2023:

ExxonMobil has resolved a long-running case filed by locals who claimed soldiers the oil company employed to secure a natural gas project in the Indonesian province of Aceh tortured and murdered people.

According to a joint filing on Monday, “all matters” would be resolved between the two parties.

The conditions were private, according to the villagers’ attorney Agnieszka Fryszman.

A spokesperson for Exxon Mobil said the settlement “brings closure for all parties”.

Filed in 2001, the case was brought by 11 villagers in Aceh who alleged they were victims of human rights abuses committed by Indonesian soldiers brought in to guard the oil and gas plant in the city of Lhoksukon between 1999 and 2003. The allegations included sexual assault, battery and unlawful detention.

A trial to decide whether the company was negligent in contracting the Indonesian soldiers had been scheduled to start in Washington, DC on May 24. ExxonMobil had denied being aware of any human rights violations and said the company could not be held responsible for any abuses that did occur as it did not order or authorise them.

“Our clients … bravely took on one of the largest and most profitable corporations in the world and stuck with the fight for more than 20 years,” said Fryszman, a lawyer at Cohen Milstein.

“We are so pleased that now, on the eve of trial, we were able to secure a measure of justice for them and their families.”

“in the face of grave threats to themselves and their fellow villagers”, who sobbed throughout the settlement, have maintained their anonymity, according to the law firm’s news release.

ExxonMobil, according to a company spokesperson, “condemns human rights violations in any form, those include the actions asserted in this case against the Indonesian military.”