Background

In 1969, the Somali Armed Forces, led by Major General Siad Barre, toppled the democratically elected government of the new nation of Somalia. During the 1970s and 1980s, these Armed Forces, with assistance from security agencies, carried out widespread atrocities against suspected opponents of the military dictatorship. Human rights reports implicate the military in the systematic use of extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and arbitrary and prolonged detention.

The Isaaq clan, located primarily in the northwestern region of Somalia, was a special target of the military government. During the 1980s, the Somali Armed Forces initiated a brutal counterinsurgency campaign to deter Isaaq civilians from sympathizing with the opposition Somali National Movement (SNM). The Armed Forces killed and looted livestock, blew up water reservoirs, destroyed homes, and tortured and imprisoned alleged supporters of the SNM, including businessmen, teachers, high school students, and nomads simply tending their herds. Mass executions of civilians occurred regularly throughout the north during these years.

Doe v Yusuf Abdi Ali ("Tokeh")

On November 10, 2004 CJA filed a case against Colonel Yusuf Abdi Ali (called “Tokeh”), a former officer in the Somali National Army during the military dictatorship of Siad Barré. Plaintiffs in the case are two members of the Isaaq clan who suffered human rights abuses committed personally by Tokeh, or by soldiers under his direct command. He currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Tokeh served as Commander of the Fifth Battalion of the Somali National Army from approximately 1984 to 1989. The Fifth Army Batallion was stationed in the city of Gebiley, which is located in the northwest corner of Somalia. This region was targeted by the Somali National Army for especially brutal treatment because of its proximity to the Ethiopian border, where opposition forces supported by the Isaaq clan were based. During the period Tokeh served as commander of the Fifth Army Batallion, the area around Gebiley became a center of human rights abuses by the Somali National Army.

Tokeh was deported from Canada in October 1992 based on evidence of his extreme brutality. He came to the U.S. and filed for permanent residency in 1993. In his visa application, he reportedly swore that he had not persecuted others. Shortly thereafter, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) placed him in deportation proceedings on the ground that he had committed fraud in completing his visa application. He withdrew his application. The INS allowed him to voluntarily depart the U.S. and, in 1994, he left for Kenya. In 1996, he was permitted to return to the United States to join his wife, a U.S. citizen. In 1998, the INS arrested him on fraud charges, stemming from misstatements in his 1993 visa application. However, an immigration judge dismissed the case on the ground that he had withdrawn the 1993 application and that his misrepresentation was therefore not “material”. He has lived openly in Virginia since then.

There are two plaintiffs in the case:

Jane Doe was brutally beaten while she was pregnant because she had allegedly assisted a member of a group that opposed the military dictatorship. She eventually lost her fetus. She was sentenced to death by a kangaroo court but her sentence was commuted to life in prison. She served over six years in a cell with thirty other women that had no windows and only a single toilet.

John Doe was also detained because he had allegedly assisted members of a group that opposed the military government. He was tortured several times and subsequently interrogated by Adbi Ali. During one of these interrogations, Adbi Ali shot him five times, thought he was dead and ordered his bodyguards to bury him. As the bodyguards carried him away, they discovered that he was not dead. They agreed to accept a bribe of 1 million shillings from Plaintiff John Doe’s family and subsequently released him.

The case was filed jointly by CJA and the law firm of Cooley Godward LLP, working on a pro bono basis. Lead lawyers are Helene Silverberg and Matthew Eisenbrandt of CJA and Bob Vieth, head of the litigation department of the Reston, Virginia office of Cooley Godward.