A former Somali leader living in Virginia is being sued under a law designed to give torture victims a chance to get recompense -- but another law gives immunity to official foreign government actions
By David G. Savage
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Reporting from Washington - Barre Yousuf, a Somali businessman living in the state of Georgia, spent much of the 1980s in a small, dark and windowless cell in Somalia.
"I was tortured with an electric shock and waterboarded," he said.
At other times, military police subjected him to what the Somali regime called the "Mig." He was forced to lie on his stomach with his arms and legs tied behind him, while a heavy rock was placed on his back. In this painful position, the victim's body was said to resemble the swept-back wings of a Mig fighter jet.
Yousuf recounted his ordeal Wednesday outside the Supreme Court, where the justices for the first time considered whether victims of torture or state-sponsored murder can sue the responsible officials under a 1991 law designed to give victims and family members a chance to get recompense for their suffering.
But Yousuf's suit against former Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar, who now lives in Virginia, ran into another law that prohibits such suits against foreign governments. The Supreme Court justices sounded closely split on whether the law demands accountability for torturers or immunity for official foreign government actions.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she did not see a problem. "This act is aimed at torturers. The judgment [damages] comes out of his pocket. It would have no effect on the government of Somalia."
Her colleagues also noted that since there was no viable government in Somalia, there was no "sovereign" state entitled to immunity.
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Stephen G. Breyer said that the principle of sovereign immunity would be useless if plaintiffs were free to sue the top officials of the government. "The only way the state can act is through individuals," the chief justice said.
Some legal experts warn that if the U.S. allows suits against foreign officials, courts abroad are likely to allow suits against American officials. For example, President Obama or top Defense Department officials could be sued after they left office by innocent victims of drone strikes in Pakistan or Afghanistan, they said.
These claims tend to be decades in the making. Yousuf fled Somalia in 1989 and settled in the U.S. With the help of the San Francisco-based Center for Justice & Accountability, he sued Samantar in 2004 because Samantar had been Somalia's defense minister and its prime minister in the 1980s.
After the collapse of the dictatorial regime of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, Samantar fled Somalia. At 74, he now lives in Fairfax, Va., outside Washington.
Asked why he sued Samantar, Yousuf replied: "He's the highest-ranking Somali official, and he's here."
He was joined at the court by a second plaintiff, Aziz Deria, who as a young man saw his father and cousin taken away by Somali security agents. Neither were seen alive again. "It's unfortunate to know he's living here in peace," Deria said of Samantar.
Though the outcome in the Supreme Court looked uncertain, Yousuf said he viewed the case as a success.
"I was very happy I had my day in court," he said.
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