DaimlerChrysler may be back in the US courts after two human-rights lawyers in the US have filed a civil case in California linking the firm to the disappearance of workers in its Argentinian plant in the 1970s, The Irish Times has learned. The firm is already involved in another US court battle over the Chrysler merger.
Lawyers Dan Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth allege that 18 workers at the Buenos Aires factory were kidnapped by Argentine security forces, with the collusion of Mercedes management which supplied names and addresses of those it suspected of being "agitators".
The complaint, which speaks of "extra-judicial killing, torture and crimes against humanity", is on behalf of ex-workers and relatives of ex-workers of Mercedes' Argentine plant between 1976 and 1977. It is claimed that management "turned over a list of 'problem' employees - meaning those who were trying to organise a trade union". Of 18 kidnapped, nine disappeared, presumed murdered by the regime. Official figures put the number disappearances during Argentina's dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 at nearly 9,000. Others say it was as high as 30,000.
The case has been filed for hearing under the Alien Tort Claims Act which allows those from other countries to sue, as long at the defendant is based in the US. Under its provisions, the company has 30 days in which to respond to the complaint, which was lodged at the US District Court, Northern California, on January 14th. Before this time expires, the company must say if it intends to contest the case, or file to have it dismissed.
A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz declined to comment, saying that she had heard of the matter "only through the media". She referred to an investigation set up by Mercedes, after pressure in Germany when German journalist Gaby Weber, who is based in Argentina, broke the story of the disappeared workers.
Professor Christian Tomuschat, of Humboldt University, Berlin, headed this investigation. It conceded that "There were contacts between Mercedes-Benz and the state secret services", but concluded that there was "no proof whatever" that the abductions and murders were done at the instigation of the company.