A jury has found a northern Virginia man who once served as a colonel in the Somali Army responsible for torturing a man more than 30 years ago as part of a government campaign to repress its perceived enemies.
After three days of deliberations, the civil jury on Tuesday awarded a $500,000 verdict to Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa, a member of the Isaaq clan in northern Somalia. Warfaa came to the U.S. and testified at the trial last week. He said he was 17 years old when he was rounded up in a mass arrest and beaten and hogtied during interrogations. Finally he was shot and left for dead, but survived.
Yusuf Abdi Ali, who now lives in Alexandria, acknowledged he was a Somali colonel but denied torturing Warfaa.
