For the past ten years, Mohamed Samatar has lived in the state of Virginia. In his previous life, Samatar was the head of the Defense Ministry in Somalia. While serving in that capacity, the Somali military used systematic rape, torture and extra-judicial execution to enforce order and punish its rivals. One of the regime’s victims is named Bashe Abdi Yousuf. He was tortured through prolonged stress positions, waterboarding, and solitary confinement that lasted several years in Somalia. Like Mr Samatar, Mr. Yousuf also now lives in the United States and he is angry that he is forced to share a country with the man who was responsible for his torture. Mr. Yousuf is suing Mr. Samatar in the US court system for the crime of torture. And that case has just landed in the Supreme Court.
The case has been filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act which was passed by the US Congress in 1991. The law states that “foreign government officials who torture and kill – including those who torture and kill U.S. citizens – are not above the law and must be held accountable for their actions.” Further, “when the alleged torturer has chosen to live within U.S. borders and an effective judicial system is unavailable in the country where the crimes were committed – as is the case in Somalia – the torturer can be held accountable under the laws of the United States.” This is the same law that allowed the Bush-era DOJ to prosecute and convict Charles Taylor two years ago for the torture he committed while in Liberia.
Needless to say, the case brings up some intriguing problems for the US Justice system. For years the Bush administration worked in secret to kidnap, torture, and indefinitely imprison individuals in flagrant disregard of domestic and international law. They waterboarded. They put people into prolonged stress positions. They performed mock burials. They placed people in solitary confinement for years on end. And people died as a result. People went completely insane as a result. And now we’ll have to pretend like none of that ever happened so that we’ll have the moral authority to hear the case of Mohamed Samatar.
Let’s just say that I’m going to be following this case.