Man allegedly tortured by US and UK troops wins right to sue for damages

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Guardian

The high court has dismissed the government’s claim that Britain’s relations with the US would be damaged if a Pakistani citizen who says he was tortured by British and American troops was allowed to sue for damages in court.
...
“If it is necessary to adjudicate on whether acts of US personnel were lawful … in order to decide whether the defendants violated the claimant’s legal rights, then the court can and must do so,” he said.

He added: “For the court to refuse to decide a case involving a matter of legal right on the ground that vindicating the right would be harmful to state interests would seem to me to be an abdication of its constitutional function.”

Yunus Rahmatullah says he was tortured over a 10-year period after being captured by British special forces in Iraq and handed over to US troops in 2004. He was released by the US without charge in May.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/nov/19/man-allegedly-tortured-us-ulk-troops-wins-right-sue-damages

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What happened:

He describes in detail his torture and abuse in a 60-page document drawn up by his lawyers and seen by the Guardian. He says when he was captured by British special forces in Iraq in early 2004 he was beaten unconscious. Soldiers cut his clothes with a pair of scissors until, he says, he was "completely naked".

His lawyers' statement of claim describes how a soldier poured water on to Rahmatullah's face after placing a cloth over his mouth and nose causing "a sensation of drowning".

He was shackled and hooded, and lapsed in and out of consciousness as he was beaten and thrown against a wall. He was suspended upside down and "repeatedly dunked into a tank of water", says the court document.

At one point, he was taken to a room "where he was horrified to see six or seven naked detainees piled on top of each other", according to the court statement. He was thrown on top of the detainees and kept in the room for more than two days.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/29/mod-foreign-office-yunus-rahmatullah-torture-case

[Warren Stupidity]

1. everyone involved in this should be in jail

starting from the top.

[cosmicone]

2. Only if proven true

These are just allegations and the court was right that he must get his day in court.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. There is a Latin legal aphorism,

Attributed to Lucius Calpurnius Piso (Julius Caesar's father-in-law), Fiat justitia ruat caelum -- "Let justice be done though the heavens fall."