A US federal judge on Friday denied coal giant Drummond’s request to dismiss all charges against the company in the case over murders by paramilitaries of innocent Colombian civilians.
Drummond had asked the court in Birmingham, Alabama for a dismissal and denies having anything to do with the death of dozens of people along the Drummond-owned rail transport lines from the company’s coal mines to the Drummond seaport near Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast.
The suit filed last year by Colombians alleges Drummond, paramilitary organization AUC, and the Colombian government conspired in the violence and killings of innocent Colombians caught in the crossfire in the civil war against Marxist FARC rebels.
A trial date in the US has not been set yet in the civil suit which alleges 67 wrongful deaths in the late 1990s under two U.S. laws: the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act.