| Under the United States judicial system 218-year-old Alien Tort Statute, as reported
by The Miami Herald of Thursday, February 22, 2007, in a news article about ex-Haitian
Army Colonel, Carl Dorelien, who took residence in the state of Florida and was later
deported to his native Haiti, but not before sojourning in the state of the same name
detention center, Krome, in the immediate aftermath of his arrest by immigration agents,
foreign nationals residing in the U.S. who suffer serious abuse (human rights), which may
be defined as torture, extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention, anywhere in the world
can sue in U.S. federal court if the alleged perpetrators have now established residence in or are currently visiting the nation just mentioned. The case of Dorelien, who has been
sued, in civil federal court (under the command doctrine), by, at least, two of his
alleged Haitian victims, on the basis of gross human rights violations, in the town of
Raboteau, Haiti, in April 1994, suggests that you, too, provided you have been victims of
gross human rights violations in your nation of origin, can, at the very least, commence
legal proceedings against the presumed perpetrators who have now established residence in the U.S. or
are presently on U.S. soil, even for a reduced duration of time.
RELATED TEXT: Former
Haitian Army Colonel Dorelien ordered to pay $4.3 million for gross human rights
violations |
