ALEXANDRIA,
Va. — A jury has found a northern Virginia man who once served as a
colonel in the Somali Army responsible for torturing a man more than 30
years ago as part of a government campaign to repress its perceived
enemies. After
three days of deliberations, the civil jury on Tuesday awarded a
$500,000 verdict to Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa, a member of the Isaaq
clan in northern Somalia. Warfaa came to the U.S. and testified at the trial last week. He said he was 17 years old and herding camels and cattle for his family's farm when he was rounded up in a mass arrest In December 1987 over a missing water-tanker truck.
He said he was then regularly beaten and hogtied
during weeks of incarceration and interrogations. Finally, he said that
Yusuf Abdi Ali, a colonel who was known as "Tuke" or "Tokeh," shot him
multiple times and left him for dead when his interrogation was
interrupted by an insurgent attack.
According to the lawsuit, Ali ordered his underlings to bury Warfaa,
but the soldiers quickly realized Warfaa was still alive and instead
solicited a bribe from Warfaa's family to let him live.
Ali, who now lives in Alexandria, acknowledged he was a Somali colonel, but denied torturing Warfaa.
The jury's verdict
found Ali responsible for the torture of Warfaa, but it explicitly
rejected an allegation that Ali was responsible for the attempted
extrajudicial killing of Warfaa, even though Warfaa testified directly
that it was Ali who shot him.
Ali's lawyer, Joseph
Peter Drennan, said the jury's verdict indicates that it did not believe
parts of Warfaa's testimony, and held Ali responsible for the torture
only under the theory the soldiers who did torture Warfaa were under the
command and control of Ali, who led the Army's 5th Brigade.
The lawsuit was first
filed in 2004. It was delayed for 15 years mostly by legal debate over
whether a Somali national could bring suit in the U.S. over alleged
torture overseas. Parts of the lawsuit were tossed out, but Warfaa was
allowed it to proceed to trial under the federal Torture Victims
Protection Act.
Drennan said the case
left Ali in an almost untenable position of trying to defend himself for
the actions of his underlings more than 30 years ago. He also noted
those actions occurred half way across the world in a country divided by
civil war, where the central government was breaking down.
"This idea of
universal jurisdiction, and American courts adjudicating issues like
this that happened far away, and long ago, is very problematic," Drennan
said.
Warfaa, who brought
the lawsuit with help from the San Francisco-based center for Justice
and Accountability, said in a statement that the verdict was "a
vindication not only for me, but also for many others in Somaliland who
suffered under Col. Tukeh's command."
It is unclear whether
Warfaa will be able to collect any significant judgment. Drennan said
his client does not have that kind of money - he had until very recently
been working as an Uber driver until he lost that job because of
publicity over his case.
Drennan alleged that
the real motive for the case is clan vengeance, and cited efforts by
members of the Isaaq clan to establish an independent Somaliland state
in northern Somalia.
The judgment comes
several years after resolution of a similar lawsuit against Somalia's
former prime minister under dictator Siad Barre, Mohamed Ali Samantar,
who also took up residence in northern Virginia. In that case, Samantar
accepted a default judgment against him on the eve of trial and refused
to contest the allegations against him in court, though he said outside
court that he committed no wrongdoing.
CJA lawyer Kathy
Roberts said the evidence in the most recent case "has confirmed the
truth about crimes perpetrated by the Siad Barre regime against members
of the Isaaq community during the Somali civil war. Our client Farhan's
strength and perseverance is a testament to all those who seek truth,
justice and accountability."
The Associated Press.
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