Monday, April 26, 2010

FORMER CHIEF OF “SOMALI GESTAPO” FACES LAWSUIT FOR TORTURE

(COLUMBUS, OHIO, April 21, 2010) – Today, the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of constitutional law professor Abukar Hassan Ahmed who was imprisoned and tortured in Somalia during the brutal regime of Siad Barre.  The lawsuit was filed against Abdi Aden Magan, a resident of Columbus, Ohio and the former head of the Somali National Security Service (NSS) Department of Investigations during the Barre regime.  The NSS, which came to be known as the “Somali Gestapo,” engaged in systematic and horrific torture of prisoners.  In this complaint, Magan is accused of directly ordering, conspiring with and aiding and abetting subordinates in the torture and other human rights abuses of Mr. Ahmed. Today, more than twenty years after he fled Somalia, Mr. Ahmed still bears the scars -- physical and emotional -- from the torture he suffered.  


Read more at the Center for Justice & Accountability Website

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