After Years of Slammed Doors, Torture Survivors Finally End Impunity Streak
As an attorney representing victims of torture, one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen is the sheer determination of survivors standing up and publicly confronting those responsible. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 so elated that our clients Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and Obaidullah have surmounted so many obstacles in their long pursuit of justice.
Last week, almost two years after filing their lawsuit, our clients prevailed over the final attempt to keep their claims out of court. And today, these brave men secured a settlement from James Mitchell and John 鈥淏ruce鈥� Jessen, the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA torture program that ensnared two of them and killed a relative of the third.
Torture is about trying to break human beings. Torturers inflict suffering with the goal of making prisoners feel such overpowering fear and despair that they cannot resist the torturer鈥檚 demands. As documents revealed in this case prove, Mitchell and Jessen specifically designed their torture program for the CIA to inflict 鈥渇ear and despair鈥� until prisoners became 鈥渉elpless.鈥�
After torture, survivors are usually left with feelings of trauma and helplessness 鈥� just as their torturers intended. Often, torture survivors report feeling worthless and powerless. It takes a lot of courage for anyone who has been so brutally traumatized to stand up to those responsible. But that is what our clients did in seeking accountability in a U.S. court.
To understand the legal landscape our clients faced with this lawsuit, it鈥檚 important to look back at the much longer story of torture accountability. That story, until today, has been one of total impunity.
The Bush administration turned to torture just over 15 years ago. That shameful policy inflicted violence and suffering on hundreds of mostly brown and black Muslim men held in secret prisons around the world. In the years that followed, we and other attorneys have represented a number of survivors seeking accountability. But, every case, without exception, ended the same way: Courts turned survivors away from the courthouse doors. Judges refused even to consider the abuses that government officials and contractors acting in our name inflicted on our fellow human beings.
In ruling after ruling, judges decided that the CIA鈥檚 torture program was too secret for our courts, that the Constitution did not protect prisoners of the United States from torture, that torturers at Guant谩namo from liability, that government officials who and ordered the torture of a U.S. citizen were immune from liability, that contractors involved in torture 鈥� and on and on, a depressing litany of impunity.
Torture is about trying to break human beings.
Against this backdrop of despair, our clients stood up. Last year, Mitchell and Jessen argued that torture was a 鈥減olitical decision鈥� on which courts cannot pass judgment. But our clients prevailed. In January, Mitchell and Jessen tried a different tack, prevented the court from deciding the case. Again, our clients prevailed. This summer, Mitchell and Jessen argued one final time that they could not be liable for the torture inflicted on our clients because they were 鈥渟imply doing business.鈥� Once more, our clients prevailed.
As Mohamed recently reminded us, 鈥淜eep in mind that when we started this lawsuit, I didn鈥檛 expect it to go this far, to get to this excellent level.鈥� But he stood up anyway. He and Suleiman and Obaidullah each flew thousands of miles to tell their stories. They endured depositions and medical exams. And they prevailed over every obstacle.
As a result, our clients secured multiple court decisions cementing the rights of torture survivors to seek justice from those responsible. They forced hundreds of pages of formerly secret documents into the light. For the first time ever, the psychologists and top CIA officials were made to answer questions, under oath, from attorneys representing torture survivors. Our clients鈥� stories, and much of the broader CIA torture story, are in the public domain.
Justice can be a long time coming. But Mohamed, Suleiman, and Obaidullah remind me of why we keep fighting for accountability against what can feel like insurmountable odds. Now they want to turn to healing, and we can get closer to finally turning the page on torture. Now torturers who think they can hide from the courts know that impunity is not guaranteed.
Accountability is a process. Recovery is a process. Survival is a process. And today was a good day.
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
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National Security
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VirginiaDec 2024
National Security
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Our client, Nizar Trabelsi, is in the United States against his will. The federal government brought him here from Belgium more than a decade ago and charged him with terrorism-related crimes. At trial, the government鈥檚 case failed: a federal jury found Mr. Trabelsi not guilty. But instead of allowing Mr. Trabelsi to return to Belgium after his acquittal, the United States placed him in highly restrictive immigration detention and began an ongoing effort to force him to Tunisia, where he was born and where he will very likely be tortured. Mr. Trabelsi鈥檚 detention violates the Constitution, immigration law, and the extradition treaty between the United States and Belgium. Through this lawsuit, he seeks to return to Belgium, and he demands an immediate improvement of his detention conditions. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Immigrants' Rights
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