By Tom Bergin
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The widow of an activist executedafter protesting against Royal Dutch Shell's oilproduction in Nigeria has won access to legal documents for usein a legal case for damages against the oil giant that she saysshe plans to launch in the Netherlands.
A U.S. judge in December told Shell's U.S. lawyers to giveEsther Kiobel documents about Shell's activities in Nigeria,according to her lawyers and a court transcript obtained byprotest website royaldutchshellplc.com and seen by Reuters.
Kiobel alleges that Shell was complicit in the execution ofher late husband, alongside author and environmental activistKen Saro-Wiwa, by the Nigerian military in 1995 because itprovided support and funding for the army in its crackdown ofopposition to a Shell-led joint venture in the Niger Delta.
Shell said in a statement that it denied the allegations,previously made in a lawsuit against Shell in the United States.
"We have always denied, in the strongest possible terms, theallegations made by the plaintiffs in this tragic case," aspokesman said in the statement.
It made no comment about the possibility of legal action inthe Netherlands or the December court ruling on the documents.
Kiobel previously gained access to the documents anddeposition transcripts she is now seeking but only for use inthe U.S. lawsuit.
Kiobel's lawyers said a court order prevented her from usingthe files in other legal actions or publicly discussing thecontents.
Nonetheless, in an October filing Kiobel's lawyers said theysought the documents as part of their aim of proving cooperationbetween "the Nigerian junta and Shell in committing human rightsviolations".
The previous U.S. case was unsuccessful because the SupremeCourt ruled in 2013 that claims could only be taken in theUnited States if an alleged transgression was guided from insidethe country.
Kiobel's Dutch lawyer, Channa Samkalden, said the Dutchcivil case would be filed in the next couple of months. Anydamages are likely to be immaterial for Shell, analysts said, asDutch courts rarely make the kinds of multi-million dollarawards common in the United States.
Marco Simons, a lawyer with environmental group Earth Rightsin Washington who has seen the documents because he representedKiobel in the U.S. lawsuit, said the material to be turned overwould support the lawsuit against Shell in the Netherlands,where the courts have already agreed to hear other casesinvolving Shell's overseas activities.
"It would be extremely critical to have access to all ofthis evidence," he said.
Reuters has not seen the documents and cannot independentlyverify what Simons says about the relevance of their content.
Shell's law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, which askedthe court to reject Kiobel's request, did not respond torequests for comment. (Editing by Alison Williams and Alexander Smith)
