A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a pair of suits brought by a group of Indonesian villagers who accused Exxon Mobil of abetting human rights violations, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing.
In his six-page opinion dealing with both cases, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the villagers could not sue in U.S. court because they were non-resident aliens, and because the issues in the case pertained entirely to Indonesia. The plaintiffs alleged that they were terrorized by soldiers Exxon had hired to protect a natural gas plant in the war-torn region of Aceh. They first filed suit in 2001, then added a second suit in 2007.
