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30 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 347 (2006-2007)
Deportation of Human Rights Abusers: Towards Achieving Accountability, Not Fostering Impunity

handle is hein.journals/hasint30 and id is 359 raw text is: Deportation of Human Rights Abusers: Towards Achieving Accountability, Not Fostering Impunity By SIMONA AGNOLUCCI * Josef, a Lebanese war criminal and known torturer, fled to the United States in the 1980s and has since lived with impunity in Southern California.' A leading international human rights organization has learned of Josef's presence in the United States and would like to hold him accountable for his past abuses. Because the 10-year statute of limitations applicable to Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) suits has expired and there may be no possibility for tolling, bringing a civil suit against him in the United States could prove difficult. Josef can be prosecuted for torture committed abroad pursuant to a domestic criminal law,2 but the United States has used this law to file torture charges only once.3 Although having Josef extradited to Europe for trial might be possible, the facts of his case - the acts he committed, their time frame, and the nationality of his victims - do not lend themselves to universal jurisdiction under * Law clerk to the Honorable William C. Canby, Jr., Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. J.D., University of California, Hastings College of the Law, 2006. Bachelor of Arts, Stanford University, 1998. The author would like to thank Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Lexiuste Cajuste, Moira Feeney, and Elias Batchelder for their guidance, insight, and support. 1. The facts of this hypothetical are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons or events is purely coincidental. 2. 18 U.S.C. § 2340A(a) (1994). 3. See The Center for Justice & Accountability, Chuckie Taylor, Son of Liberia's Charles Taylor, Indicted by U.S. Federal Grand Jury for Torture, available at <www.cja.org>. Charles Chuckie Taylor, Jr., the son of former Liberian warlord and president Charles Taylor, was indicted on criminal torture charges in December 2006. Taylor's indictment was the first time the U.S. government filed a prosecution under its criminal torture statute. For a discussion of the United States' reluctance to prosecute torture, see Coletta Youngers, The Pinochet Ricochet, NATION, May 8, 2000, at 5. Prosecuting Josef could also be problematic because the U.S. law criminalizing torture was passed in 1994, well after his abuses were committed.

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