After US govt upholds immunity, federal judge drops former prisoner’s torture lawsuit against ex-PM Beblawi

A US judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Egyptian-American citizen Mohamed Soltan against former Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, in which Soltan accused Beblawi of targeting him with attempted extrajudicial killing and for directing and overseeing the use of torture on him.

A Friday court filing of the judge’s opinion cited a filing from the United States administration that upheld Beblawi’s diplomatic immunity against prosecution in the suit.

Soltan responded to the news in a tweet on Friday, saying “My TVPA case against my torturer was just dismissed without prejudice (I can refile).” He called the decision “devastating” but “expected” given the “Biden admin’s unnecessary intervention in April.”

In April, President Joe Biden’s administration formally certified Beblawi’s immunity from the suit in a filing that, “Beblawi enjoyed diplomatic status at the time of commencement of this suit; the Court should accept State’s certification of El Beblawi’s status and decline to second-guess its basis.”

On Friday, the court concluded that it lacked “subject matter jurisdiction due to Defendant’s status as immune from suit,” adding that the decision is “in no way a reflection of the merits of Plaintiff’s claims or Defendant’s defenses. Nor does the Court express any view as to the merits of the Complaint.”

Soltan filed the lawsuit in a federal district court in Washington DC in June, 2020 under a US law that is intended to facilitate the implemention of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The 1991 Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) allows victims of torture of any nationality to file civil suits in North American courts against those allegedly liable for torture or inhumane treatment that took place anywhere in the world, as long as the defendants are in the United States at the time of filing.

Soltan was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 and later sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and conspiring to overthrow the state. In May 2015, after spending over 600 days in prison, he was released and flown to the United States following appeals from the Obama administration.

According to the lawsuit, during his 21 months in prison, Soltan was denied medical care for a bullet wound, beaten until he lost consciousness, burned, held in solitary confinement and forced to listen to audio recordings of his father, who was also arrested in August 2013, being tortured in a nearby cell. He lost more than 70 kilograms in weight over the course of a 16-month hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.

Seven US lawmakers also criticized the stance of the Biden administration on human rights in Egypt last week. In a September 17 statement, congressmen in the Egypt Human Rights Caucus stated that the Biden administration had “ignored the clear intent of Congress” that the entirety of a US$300 million tranche of a total $1.3 billion that the US pays in military aid to Egypt should be held back and conditioned on improvements to the human rights situation. Biden’s administration decided instead to make just $170 million of the payment conditional.