Press

Today in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. Federal Judge Mark Abel awarded $5 million in compensatory and $10 million in punitive damages (for a total award of $15 million) against former Somali Colonel Abdi Aden Magan. In 1988, Professor Abukar Hassan Ahmed was arbitrarily detained by Colonel Magan’s subordinates. On Colonel Magan’s orders, Professor Ahmed was shackled in an excruciating position in a squalid prison cell for nearly 24-hours per day for three months. There, he was brutally tortured and subjected to cruel treatment on Colonel Magan’s orders by lieutenants under his command. Nearly 25 years after his torture, Professor Ahmed has finally found justice in a U.S. court.

Today, in a federal court in Ohio, CJA client Professor Abukar Ahmed testified about his torture and unlawful detention during the brutal Siad Barre regime in Somalia. The defendant, Colonel Magan, was head of the notorious NSS Department of Investigations which was widely known to inflict psychological terror and physical torture against political prisoners and civilians. For press on the testimony clickhere, for a press release click here and for more on the case click here.

A federal court in Ohio found Colonel Magan liable for the torture, arbitrary detention and cruel treatment of CJA client and former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, Professor Abukar Ahmed (pictured here). Magan was the head of the notorious National Security Service where thousands were unlawfully detained and tortured.