Israel Matzav

US Supreme Court guts Torture Victim Protection Act

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court effectively gutted the Torture Victim Protection Act, agreeing with the Obama administration that only individuals can be sued under the Act, and not the PLO and the 'Palestinian Authority.' The case involved a naturalized US citizen who was tortured and murdered by the 'Palestinian Authority' in 1995.

The ruling involved a lawsuit against the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority by the widow and sons of a naturalized US citizen, the Palestinian-born Azzam Rahim, who was raised in the West Bank.

The lawsuit alleged he was tortured and killed in 1995 at a prison in Jericho while in the custody of Palestinian intelligence officers. The PLO has denied the allegations.

A US appeals court dismissed the lawsuit and ruled that the law adopted by Congress said that it only applied to individuals, not political groups or other organizations. The Supreme Court agreed.

"We hold that the term 'individual" as used in the act encompasses only natural persons. Consequently, the act does not impose liability against organizations," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the court's opinion. She added that Congress made that clear in the law's text.

Sotomayor said the ordinary, everyday meaning of individual referred to a human being, not an organization, and Congress gave no indication it intended anything different.

She said the arguments by those who brought the lawsuit were not persuasive. Their lawyers argued that precluding liability by organizations may foreclose effective remedies for victims and their relatives. But Sotomayor said Congress appeared well aware of the limits it had placed on the lawsuits.

The court decision was unanimous.

What do you think the odds are that any individual 'Palestinian' torturer not named Arafat or Mazen has enough assets so that someone who wins a lawsuit against him will at least be able to cover his legal expenses?

Labels: Palestinian Authority, torture

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:57 AM