A federal jury in New York has handed down a significant verdict, ordering France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, to pay nearly $21 million. This decision comes in response to the bank’s facilitation of the Sudanese government’s access to the U.S. financial system during a period when the government was involved in severe human rights violations two decades ago.

The verdict benefits three U.S. citizens—a woman and two men—who were forced to flee Sudan after losing their homes and property amid the conflict. Each plaintiff was awarded between $6.7 million and $7.3 million. The decision followed a brief four-hour deliberation by the jury on Friday.

In a pretrial memorandum dated August 28, the plaintiffs accused BNP Paribas of aiding the Sudanese government in executing what they described as “one of the most notorious campaigns of persecution in modern history.”

Adam Levitt, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, expressed satisfaction with the outcome. “They are pleased to see progress towards justice and that the bank is being held accountable for its reprehensible actions,” Levitt commented on Saturday.

Attempts to reach BNP Paribas for comment were made on Saturday, though other outlets reported a spokesperson for the bank as stating that the verdict is “clearly wrong” and indicating that there are substantial grounds for an appeal.

The bank had argued Sudan had other sources of money and that the company did not knowingly help the government engage in human rights abuses under former President Omar al-Bashir.

BNP Paribas gave Sudanese authorities access to international money markets from at least 2002 to 2008. As many as 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the Darfur region over the years. The litigation pertains to government actions in many parts of the country.

Al-Bashir is being held in a military-run detention facility in northern Sudan, his lawyer said earlier this month. He has been charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes that include genocide but has not been handed over to face justice in The Hague.

Sudan plunged into a civil war more than two years ago, sparking what aid organizations have described as one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises.

Lawyers for the French bank argued it did not have liability, saying in an August court filing that, “Human rights abuses in Sudan did not start with BNPP, did not end when BNPP left Sudan, and were not caused by BNPP.”

BNP Paribas, they wrote, ”never participated in Sudanese military transactions in any way — it never financed Sudan’s purchase of arms, and there is no evidence linking any specific transaction to Plaintiffs’ injuries.”

Levitt, the plaintiffs’ attorney, called the case a “bellwether trial” with findings he hopes to apply to other Sudanese refugees, 23,000 U.S. citizens, who are members of the class-action case.

In 2014, BNP Paribas agree to pay nearly $9 billion to settle a case by entering a guilty plea in New York and acknowledging it processed billions of dollars in transactions for clients in Sudan as well as Cuba and Iran.