Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement June 8 to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist poet Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria's former military regime.

Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. AP PHOTO

Shell, which continues to operate in Nigeria, said it agreed to settle the lawsuit in the hopes of aiding the "process of reconciliation." But Europe's largest oil company acknowledged no wrongdoing in the 1995 hanging deaths of six people.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York claimed Shell colluded with the country's former military government to silence environmental and human rights activists in the country's Ogoni region. Shell started operating in the oil-rich district in 1958.

The lawsuit said that in the 1990s, Shell officials helped furnish Nigerian police with weapons, participated in security sweeps of the area and asked government troops to shoot villagers protesting the construction of a pipeline that later leaked oil.

The plaintiffs also say Shell helped the government capture and hang Saro-Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Saturday Doobee, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbokoo and Dr. Barinem Kiobel on Nov. 10, 1995.

Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, led rallies against Shell. He blamed the company for myriad oil spills and gas fires in the Ogoni region.

"I think he would be happy with this," Saro-Wiwa's 40-year-old son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., said in a telephone interview from London. Though Shell denied any wrongdoing, "the fact that they would have to settle is a victory for us."