November 4, 2020 • • 55 NOBEL LAUREATES DEMAND END TO CHEVRON’S PERSECUTION OF U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY STEVEN DONZIGER Nobel winners from around the world demand Donziger be released from house arrest as he suffers judicial attacks led by oil giant Chevron Fifty-five Nobel Prize Laureates—including 10 Nobel Donziger’s “crime” amounts to refusing an Kaplan appointed both Preska and Glavin after his Peace Prize recipients—have joined together to support unprecedented and likely illegal order to turn over charges against Donziger were rejected – twice – by the embattled U.S. human rights attorney Steven Donziger. his computer and cell phone, full of attorney-client New York federal prosecutor. More than 200 lawyers Donziger secured an historic $9.5 billion ruling protected materials, to Chevron. and 37 bar associations around the world recently against Chevron for the decades-long pollution of the filed a detailed ethics complaint against Judge Kaplan Ecuadorian Amazon. But Chevron has rejected the “Steven Donziger is one of the few people to have stood outlining years of alleged misconduct in his targeting ruling and it is Donziger who is paying the price. up on behalf of thousands of Indigenous peoples and of Donziger. rural farmers suffering from cancers and other health “As Nobel Laureates, we have a deep and abiding interest impacts caused by oil pollution,” said Jody Williams, The Nobel Laureates call on U.S. judicial authorities to in peace and justice, in upholding our international an organizer of the Nobel Laureates effort. “It is time immediately: system for the protection of human rights, and in to end the injustice again Steven Donziger and, most protecting the environment,” the letter reads. “It clearly importantly, against 30,000 indigenous people who no • Release Donziger from home detention; is a violation of Mr. Donziger’s rights and those of the longer have a lawyer to represent them.” • Dismiss the charges against him; affected communities in Ecuador for a U.S. corporation • Cease all judicial harassment of Donziger; to wrest the power from government to prosecute the The criminal contempt charge that led to Donziger’s • Ensure that any further legal actions involving lawyer who helped to hold it accountable for human house arrest without trial is riddled with conflicts of Donziger are assigned to a neutral and unbiased rights abuses, abetted by judges with their own conflicts interest and is a form of corporate retaliation against judge. of interest.” him – for winning the Chevron case and refusing to give up even though the oil giant refuses to pay the A full list of the Nobel signatories is below. In the years following the judgment, Chevron launched judgment. His prosecution is being orchestrated by an explicit campaign to “demonize Donziger” which has Chevron, aided by pro-Chevron judges and lawyers. For more information visit now reached deep into the American judicial system. www.MakeChevronPay.com Donziger has been held for 15 months under pre-trial In this particular case against Donziger, Judge Loretta house arrest in Manhattan in a criminal contempt case Preska, prosecutor Rita Glavin and the charging judge, where the maximum punishment, if he were to be tried Lewis A. Kaplan have ties to Chevron. and convicted, is six months. • Nobel Laureates • PEACE ECONOMICS CHEMISTRY PHYSICS Mairead Maguire (1976) Oliver Hart (2016) Joachim Frank (2017) Barry Clark Barish (2017) Shirin Ebadi (2003) Edmund S. Phelps (2006) Robert F. Curl Jr. (1996) J. Georg Bednorz (1987) Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980) Joseph E. Stiglitz (2001) Joachim Frank (2017) Steven Chu (1997) Leymah Roberta Gbowee (2011) Dudley R. Herschbach (1986) Jerome I. Friedman (1990) Tawakkol Karman Roald Hoffmann (2011) MEDICINE (1981) Sheldon Glashow (1979) Jose Ramos-Horta (1996) Brian K. Kobilka (2012) David J. Gross (2004) Oscar Arias Sanchez (1987) William C. Campbell (2015) Roger D. Kornberg (2006) Brian D. Josephson (1973) Kailash Satyarthi (2014) Mario R. Capecchi (2007) Yuan T. Lee (1986) Rigoberta Menchu Tum (1992) Louis J. Ignarro (1998) Jean-Marie Lehn (1987) John C. Mather (2006) Jody Williams (1997) Barry J. Marshall (2005) Paul L. Modrich (2015) Michel Mayor (2019) Yoshinori Ohsumi (2016) George P. Smith (2018) William D. Phillips (1997) LITERATURE Sir Richard J. Roberts (1993) Sir John E. Walker (1997) H. David Politzer (2004) Gregg L. Semenza (2019) Arieh Warshel (2013) Horst L. Stormer (1998) J. M. Coetzee (2003) J. Robin Warren (2005) Kip Stephen Thorne (2017) Elfriede Jelinek (2004) Torsten N. Wiesel (1981) Daniel C. Tsui (1998) Herta Muller (2009) Robert Woodrow Wilson (1978) Alice Munro (2013) David J. Wineland (2012) Wole Soyinka (1986) makechevroncleanup.com sponsored by Fundacion Pachamama, Ecuador | www.pachamama.org.ec.