Press

A US court has ordered former Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar to pay $21m (£13m) to seven Somalis who accused him of torture and killings.

A U.S. court has ordered a former Somali prime minister to pay $21 million to victims of torture and human rights abuses while he was in office.

A former Somali prime minister denied diplomatic immunity must pay $21 million in damages to the victims of his alleged torture and human rights abuse, a U.S. federal court ruled.

The former prime minister of Somalia on Thursday ended an eight-year legal battle by accepting legal liability for alleged war crimes and killings that occurred under the regime of dictator Siad Barre. But he denied wrongdoing and said he never approved any slayings.

A seven year court battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court ended in a federal courtroom in Virginia on Thursday when former Somali Gen. Mohamed Ali Samantar admitted liability for war crimes and human rights abuses committed in the late 1980s, when he was the defense minister and commander of military forces in Somalia.

A judge ruled Friday that a former Somali prime minister who has been living quietly in the U.S. for the last 14 years can be questioned under oath in a federal lawsuit alleging he oversaw war crimes and other abuses against his own people more than a quarter century ago.

MCLEAN, Va. — A judge has denied legal immunity to a former Somali prime minister now living in northern Virginia who is accused in a federal lawsuit of torture and war crimes.

When Mohamed Ali Samantar came to the United States from war-torn Somalia in 1997, he hoped to live quietly in retirement in suburban Virginia. But thanks to a little-known San Francisco human rights group, the former Somali official instead became the focus of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court human rights case.

In a major victory for a San Francisco-based human rights group, the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday ruled unanimously that former officials of foreign countries are barred from claiming immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act for alleged acts of torture.

A group of Somalis who allege torture and killings by the former government of their homeland may pursue their lawsuit against a former prime minister now living in Fairfax County, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The justices rule that the U.S. immunity law does not prevent Somalis who say they or their relatives were tortured from suing former Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar, who now lives in Virginia.

Washington…Victims of torture at the hands of foreign government officials won a victory in the Supreme Court Tuesday, when the justices ruled federal law does not automatically shield ex-officials from being sued for ordering killings and the abuse of prisoners.

The three refugees from Somalia came to the Bay Area several years ago to escape the violence of their homeland, to put the terror behind them. But they were shocked to learn in 2002…

The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on whether a former Somali prime minister is protected by sovereign immunity from a lawsuit seeking to hold him responsible for torture and human rights abuses.

A federal appeals court has reinstated a human rights lawsuit against a former prime minister of Somalia who is accused of overseeing killings and other atrocities.

One morning in November 1981, three armed Somali security officers showed up at Bashe Abdi Yousuf’s warehouse. They pushed him into a Land Cruiser, drove him to a detention center and tortured him for two months…

A California-based human rights group has filed lawsuits accusing two Somali residents of Northern Virginia of war crimes, including ordering torture, killings, rapes and other acts of brutality against a rival clan during the 1980s when they held positions of power in their homeland…

One evening last year, a 35-year-old Somali computer analyst was visiting a friend in a quiet Virginia suburb when he encountered a man whose name he had heard and cursed a thousand times but whom he had never expected to see–especially here. The computer analyst (fearing retribution, he asked to use the pseudonym Omer) says he was stunned. It turns out the other guest was Mohamed Ali Samantar…

Former Somali General Mohamad Ali Samantar accepted liability before U.S. federal judge Leonie Brinkema for torture, extrajudicial killing, war crimes and other human rights abuses committed against the civilian population of Somalia during the brutal Siad Barre regime.

Court to decide if former foreign government officials who use torture, rape and killing as tools of repression are above the law, or whether those who avail themselves of all the benefits of living in the U.S. must, like all other Americans, submit themselves to U.S. law.