The lawyers for the plaintiffs, all of whom volunteered their services, are James K. Green of West Palm Beach and Peter Stern and Beth van Schaack of the international law firm Morrison & Foerster. They were assisted by Professor Carolyn Patty Blum, Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley.

The suit was brought under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act.

The latter Act, adopted in 1789, gives survivors of egregious human rights abuses, wherever committed, the right to sue responsible persons in U.S. federal court.

The Torture Victim Protection Act, signed into law by the first President Bush in 1992, gives similar rights to U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike to bring claims for torture and extrajudicial killing.

Under both laws, the perpetrator must be physically served with the lawsuit in the United States in order for the court to have jurisdiction.

For more information about the case, including summaries of trial testimony and information about the plaintiffs, please see the Center for Accountability and Justice's website: www.cja.org.

Photo courtesy of School of the Americas Watch: http://www.soaw.org