Mohamed Ali Samantar, once Somalia’s minister of defense under the Siad Barre regime in the 1980s, now lives in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been accused by some Somalis of overseeing a campaign of torture, imprisonment and executions directed at political prisoners. The allegations include authorizing the 1988 military attacks that killed more than 5,000 people in Hargeisa, the nation’s second largest city.

 

The Center for Justice & Accountability has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Somali survivors who want Samantar punished for his actions. The case, Yousuf v. Samantar, relies on the Torture Victim Protection Act which Congress passed in 1991. The law states that foreign government officials accused of torture who now live in the U.S. can be accountable under American law as long as there is no effective judicial system in the country where the crimes were committed. Plaintiffs are arguing that the chaotic state of Somalia today makes it impossible to bring Samantar to justice back home.

 

Samantar insists that he is protected from legal action in the U.S. under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act which grants immunity from American lawsuits to government officials from other nations.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Is There a War Criminal Living in Your Backyard? (by Pamela Merchant, Huffington Post)

CJA Files Respondents' Brief with U.S. Supreme Court in Samantar v. Yousuf (Center for Justice & Accountability)

Pleadings: Yousuf v. Samantar (Center for Justice & Accountability)