Somali 'war criminal' works as US airport security
A man, who is accused of committing war crimes in Somalia, is working as a security guard at an international airport near Washington, DC.
Yusuf Abdi Ali is living a normal life with his Somali wife near Washington and has been working at Dulles International Airport over the past six years, CNN reported.
He was a military commander during Somalia’s deadly civil war in the 1980s, where he allegedly committed atrocities against the Isaaq community in the African country’s northern region.
The Isaaq clan was heavily repressed and brutalized by government troops during the war. Many of them were killed and buried in mass graves.
Ali moved to Canada after Somalia’s military regime led by Mohamed Siad Barre collapsed in 1991. He was deported several years later after the CBC network aired a documentary about his war crimes in Somalia.
He then entered the US under a visa through his wife, Intisar Farah, who got a US citizenship after claiming she is from Isaaq clan that was tortured by Ali.
He is placed on administrative leave following media attention to his past and is being sued in a civil court in the US. The lawsuit describes him a “war criminal” who committed “crimes against humanity.”
Kathy Roberts, an attorney of Center for Justice and Accountability that leads the lawsuit, said Ali “oversaw some of the most incredible violence that you can imagine."
"He tortured people personally; he oversaw torture," Roberts also said, stressing that Ali is directly responsible for the violence.
“He arrested people, stole their stuff, burned villages, executed masses of people. At one point he had a school come out to view an execution,” she added.
The lawsuit against Ali was initially filed in 2006. The case had several twists and appeals over the years. In February, a US appeals court ruled that only part of the case can move forward and the part that he committed “war crimes” cannot be addressed because the alleged crimes happened outside of the US.
The case is now headed to the US Supreme Court. If the court accepts to hear the case, it would become a landmark issue over whether the US can hold foreigners accountable for crimes committed outside the US.
According to Roberts, there are about 1,000 accused war criminals living and working in the United States.
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