He Sued Chevron and Won. Now He's Under House Arrest.

[Judi Lynn]

Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger won a $9.5 billion class action settlement against Chevron in 2011 on behalf of 30,000 people in the Amazon, but has been under house arrest since 2019 after Chevron retaliated through various legal maneuvers. (Photo by Raul Coto Batres)

ACT LOCALLY » FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Chevron is using the U.S. courts to avoid paying out $9.5 billion for environmental damage—and to silence lead lawyer Steven Donziger.

BY CHRISTINE MACDONALD

NEW YORK CITY—Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, 58, prowls his Manhattan apartment from bright living room to dim kitchen and back, too restless to sit still while discussing the events that have brought him to this moment: nervous about the future, his law license suspended, his every movement surveilled by a black ankle bracelet he never imagined he’d be wearing. He’s been under house arrest since August 2019.

“It feels like I am a corporate political prisoner,” Donziger says. He successfully sued the multinational energy corporation Chevron on behalf of 30,000 indigenous people and farmers in the Amazon rainforest. Oil exploration and drilling by Texaco (later acquired by Chevron) polluted Ecuador’s rainforest from the 1960s to the early 1990s, leaving behind nearly a thousand unlined pits of waste. Birth defects, miscarriages and cancer rates skyrocketed.

After a nearly 20-year legal battle, Donziger’s team won a $9.5 billion judgment against the oil company in 2011. But with the blessing of a federal judge, Chevron has used the U.S. courts to avoid paying out.

With the case now in its 27th year, Chevron has employed dozens of law firms and thousands of lawyers to overwhelm the Ecuadorans’ legal team.

More:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/22307/held-political-prisoner-by-chevron-stevendonziger-humanrights-housearrest

[2naSalit]

1. That's Rachel Maddow's book on the table

in the foreground. This needs to be undone, this is part of the "lock them up" belief system of the magats.