Can an American activist sue Egypt’s ex-PM? Torture suit a test of diplomatic immunity
Mohamed Soltan’s lawsuit against the former interim prime minister of Egypt has thrust the longstanding practice of diplomatic immunity into the spotlight.
A US citizen seeking his day in court must first convince the judge that the man he accuses of orchestrating his torture in Egypt should not be immune from prosecution.
Former Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi is named as the defendant in a recent lawsuit filed in the US District Court in the District of Columbia by human rights activist Mohamed Soltan.
Soltan, a 32-year-old Egyptian-American, said the extreme torture he experienced during the nearly two years he was held as a political prisoner in Cairo was “the direct results of actions taken by the highest levels of the Egyptian government,” including by Beblawi. Following the Egyptian military's removal of Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood as the country's president in July 2013, Beblawi served as interim prime minister until March 2014.
Beblawi is at least physically, if not legally, within US jurisdiction. The former Egyptian leader currently lives in McLean, Virginia, and sits on the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.
