The widows of four Nigerian activists executed in 1995 filed a civil action in the Netherlands alleging complicity by Shell in their husbands’ deaths. Their husbands were among nine activists from the Ogoni tribe, led by writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were hanged for the murder of four political rivals but were allegedly targeted for their involvement in protests against Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary. In 2009, Shell paid $15.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed in the U.S. by the relatives of Saro-Wiwa and other activists who were tortured or killed by Nigeria’s military government (see Royal Dutch Shell instance, “Human Rights Violations in Nigeria”).