Former Somali army officer accused of torture arrested in Virginia

Ali later moved to the US and became an Uber driver, until three years ago a US jury convicted him of torturing a Somali teenager in 1987 – which he denied.

News Keydmedia Online
20 November 2022

FILEYusuf Abdi Ali, known as Colonel Tukeh, was previously the commander of a military brigade during Siad Barre's dictatorship.

USA - A former officer in the Somali army has been arrested in the United States and is being investigated for torture, extra-judicial killings, and arbitrary detentions allegedly committed in the 1980s.

Yusuf Abdi Ali, known as Colonel Tukeh, was previously the commander of a military brigade during Siad Barre’s dictatorship.

Years after fleeing the region, allegations of abuses keep resurfacing.

In 1992, Ali was deported from Canada after witnesses in a documentary said he’d ordered numerous murders.

Ali later moved to the US and became an Uber driver, until three years ago a US jury convicted him of torturing a Somali teenager in 1987 – which he denied.

Ali was ordered to pay $500,000 (£420,000) to the victim, who said he’d survived by bribing gravediggers to spare him.

Now the man who was known as Col Tukeh has been detained, as US investigators look into widespread human rights abuses including murder and torture.