U.S. Firm on Trial for Colombia Crimes

Drummond, an Alabama-based mining corporation, operates large facilities in La Loma, Colombia. On March 14, 2002, The International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and United Steelworkers of America filed a suit against Drummond on behalf of the families of slain workers and their labor union.The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama, is truly exceptional and unprecedented. It is the first case against a U.S. company charged with crimes committed outside the United States to appear before jurors. A little known and rarely used legal instrument, the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, gives Federal Courts the competence to judge American citizens for crimes committed abroad. Read full story