Araweelo News Network.
SPRINGFIELD, Virginia (ANN)- A former high-ranking Somali army officer Yusuf Ali, aka (Tukeh), accused of multiple human rights violations against Somali civilians during the 1980s was arrested in Springfield, Virginia, Homeland Security Investigations announced Friday.
According As broadcast to wusa9, the Special agents arrested Yusuf Abdi Ali, aka “Tukeh,” Thursday, in Springfield for those human rights abuses.
He’s accused of extrajudicial killing; torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; and arbitrary detention, Homeland Security said.
Homeland Security said that Ali, 69, served as a lieutenant colonel in the Somali National Army and Commander of the Fifth Brigade in Northwest Somalia (Somaliland) from approximately May 1987 to July 1988 under the dictatorship of Siad Barre.
During that time, the Somali army committed numerous serious human rights violations against civilians, according to Homeland Security.
“While Yusuf Abdi Ali’s apprehension cannot undo the pain that he allegedly inflicted upon the victims of his purported human rights abuses, it is my sincere hope that by seeing him answer for his apparent role in these heinous crimes, they will be given some form of peace,” said Derek W. Gordon, Acting Special Agent in charge of HSI Washington, D.C. “HSI Washington, D.C. is dedicated to protecting the law-abiding residents of the Washington, D.C. Metro area, while continuing to search out those who intend to benefit from the abuse of others.”
A jury in the Eastern District of Virginia found Ali liable in a civil suit in 2019 for the torture of a Somali herder and awarded the plaintiff damages.
Ali previously drove for Uber and Lyft in Virginia, according to reporting by CNN.
Police identified the victims as 40-year-old Elise Wars and her 4-year-old daughter Khori Ashton. The two were staying at the hotel since at least June
Yusuf Alli, has already been charged, after the American Jury found that the former Uber driver who lived in the state of Virginia committed acts of torture and genocide during the civil war in Somalia in the late 1980s.
In May 2019, a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, found Ali responsible for torturing Mr Warfaa more than three decades ago, awarding Mr Warfaa $500,000 (£395,000) in damages.
The Center for Justice and Accountability in USA, CJA, has been working for years to bring to justice the officials of Mohamed Siad Barre’s regime in Somalia, who committed genocide, robbery, torture, rape, and other human rights abuses in the northern regions. Somalia, which is now Somaliland
The CJA has already prosecuted General Ali Samatar, the highest-ranking officer in the military regime of Siad Barre, especially for the list of crimes committed by registered officials of that regime, and is also after other officials who are hiding in the United States. And the countries of Europe and Africa, including Mohamed Said Morgan.
In the fight against crimes of genocide and atrocities, the CJA adopts new strategies and plans to hold accountable human rights abusers. And they’re partnering with central security and transitional justice projects, working with local prosecutors and civil society to hold human rights violators accountable in US national courts and promote justice-based systems of the victim.
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By Arraale M Jama Freelance Journalist and Human Rights activist.
info@araweelonews.com