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| Iraqi immigrant sues Saddam’s regime |
| 2003-11-14 |
| Edited for brevity. Saddam Hussein’s henchmen once tortured Abdullah Alkhuzai, threw him in prison, executed his brother and made his parents pay for the bullets. Now Alkhuzai, a legal resident of the United States who lives in Overbook [Pittsburgh, PA], is suing Saddam’s regime in federal court for cruel and inhuman treatment. The lawsuit was filed in Pittsburgh on Monday. It names as defendants the Republic of Iraq; Saddam; the estates of his sons, Uday and Qusay; Ali Hassan al-Majid (nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his gassing of Kurdish civilians in 1988); and eight other ex-officials who are thought to be in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Viewers across the United States may have seen Alkhuzai on TV in April. As Saddam’s rule crumbled, the networks aired a 12-year-old videotape of Iraqi prisoners being beaten and tortured by his lieutenants. Alkhuzai, a Shiite Muslim who was 20 at the time, was one of the victims. He says it was only a fraction of what he endured under Baathist rule. The lawsuit claims that Chemical Ali threatened Alkhuzai and his family with execution and torture, subjected him to stabbings and electrocutions, beatings and coercive interrogations, starvation, dehydration, confinement in subhuman conditions and lack of medical care. As a result, the suit says, he suffered permanent injuries. [Alkhuzai’s lawyer, Regis] McClelland emphasized that Alkhuzai is suing Iraq, not the United States. "Some people have gotten it in their heads that Iraqi assets now belong to the U.S.," McClelland said. "Those assets should be available to pay Saddam’s victims." Seventeen former American prisoners from the first Gulf War who endured months of torture also filed suit against Iraq and won. The court awarded them millions of dollars from Iraq’s frozen assets in the United States, but the Bush administration has moved to block the payments, saying the money should be used to rebuild Iraq. And in September, a federal judge in New York ruled that the families of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks could not claim any part of about $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi assets in the U.S. because President Bush signed an executive order in March converting Iraqi assets in the U.S. into property of the United States government. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #2 "Those assets should be available to pay Saddam’s victims." - Sort of moronic when you think about it. Could you sue the First National Bank for property damages caused by a bank robber leaving a hold-up of their bank? The robber certainly had assets in his possession when he caused the damage. Saddam and his regime stole assets from the Iraqi people. The US is in the process of returning these assets to the Iraqi people. No fair intercepting a large chunk of the cash just because you moved to Pittsburg and hired a lawyer. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-14 3:52:41 PM |
| #1 Well, when & if we locate Sammy, we'll be sure and hand him a subponae to your little shindig, pal. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-11-14 12:27:41 PM |