KDKA TV

Pittsburgh Resident Sues Saddam's Regime
Nov 14, 2003 12:53 pm US/Eastern

An Iraqi immigrant who's now living in Pittsburgh is suing Saddam Hussein's regimen for torture.

Abdullah Alkhuzai says Saddam's henchmen tortured and imprisoned him, executed his brother and made his parents pay for the bullets.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Pittsburgh federal court, is asking for damages of at least $75,000 -- the minimum amount required for a civil lawsuit in federal court.

Defendants include the Republic of Iraq, Saddam, the estates of his sons and other former officials of the regime.

In April, Alkhuzai, who now lives in Overbrook, released a videotape showing the torture he and others had to endure, telling KDKA that his face and body still bear the scars and burn marks.

"When I lay down on the ground, they smacked me with the gun -- and a piece of rock is still in... my chin. Ali Chemical soldiers, they broke my chin with their gun... They broke my jaw with the gun too... And they put a knife on my hand... and they said we're gonna cut your hand... They put electric wires on my feet...

[Chemical Ali] said to me, 'You want to remove Saddam Hussein from the government? You can't do that.'"

-- Abdullah Alkhuzai talks about the torture he endured April 2003 interview

Alkhuzai's lawyer, Regis McClelland, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the suit is designed to protect others from enduring the same pain. "The purpose of the torture victim law," McClelland told the PG, "is to discourage terrorist regimes from torturing and killing their own people and prisoners. It makes those governments and individuals responsible for monetary damages to those they hurt in violation of international law."

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