US Court Orders Lebanese Ex-Minister to Pay $35M in Torture and Fraud Case

A U.S. district court found four Lebanese defendants, including a former minister, liable for fraud, torture, and civil conspiracy in the 2019 detention of Elie and Lara Samaha. The couple alleges they were held in an underground military prison after returning to Lebanon to settle a family dispute. This marks a rare extraterritorial application of U.S. courts to human rights abuses by foreign officials, potentially setting a precedent for future accountability cases.

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