ICE officers in Washington, D.C., deported a former high-ranking Somalian navy officer who they are saying carried out torture, terror and different human rights abuses on civilians.
The officer, 71-year-old Yusuf Abdi Ali – also referred to as “Tukeh” – was faraway from the U.S. by ICE officers on Dec. 20. He was a lieutenant colonel within the Somali Nationwide Military and commander of the Fifth Brigade in northwest Somalia through the dictatorship of Siad Barre from 1987 to 1989.
As a high-ranking officer within the Somali Nationwide Military, Ali allegedly oversaw terror actions in opposition to the Isaaq clan in northwestern Somalia. He’s believed to have carried out an array of human rights abuses, together with extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detention.
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(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Based on a Dec. 23 assertion by ICE, the Somali Nationwide Military dedicated quite a few human rights violations in opposition to civilians in these years, together with the execution of suspected political opponents, the burning of total cities, the illegal use of landmines and the destruction of water reservoirs to focus on civilian populations.
In February 2024, a Division of Justice immigration choose issued a 65-page choice figuring out that Ali personally engaged in torture whereas in management within the Somali Nationwide Military. Based on the choice, Ali ordered troopers beneath his command to detain, torture and help in extrajudicial killings. The choose ordered him eliminated to Somalia.
The U.S.-based legislation agency the Middle for Justice & Accountability, which has represented one in every of Ali’s alleged victims, Farhan Warfaa, calls him “one of the most ruthless commanders” of the Barre Somalian dictatorship. Warfaa was kidnapped as a teen by troopers beneath Ali’s command, held for months, repeatedly crushed and ultimately shot and left for lifeless.
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Troopers patrol exterior the Hayat Resort in Mogadishu, Somalia, Aug, 20, 2022. (AP Picture/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Warfaa ended up surviving, and in 2019 a federal civil court docket in Alexandria, Virginia, discovered Ali answerable for his torture.
Ali was dwelling as a everlasting resident in Springfield, Virginia, till Homeland Safety Investigations arrested him in November 2022.
“The United States will not be a safe haven for those who commit human rights violations, and we will persist in our efforts to pursue justice for the victims of these crimes,” stated Russell Hott, performing govt affiliate director for Washington, D.C., ICE Enforcement and Elimination Operations.
Hott stated that “though justice was delayed in this case, it ultimately prevailed.”
