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File photo of US military strike in the Caribbean via CMC.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The mother and sister of two Trinidadian nationals killed last year in a United States military strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the US government on Tuesday.
The case is being brought under the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows for redress for wrongful deaths at sea, and the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to file a suit in US courts for rights violations.
In what has been described as the first such case to be brought against the Donald Trump administration, the suit, filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, is being brought by the families of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, who were among six people killed in an October 14 strike in the Caribbean.
The US campaign of missile strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific has left at least 125 people dead since September and has received the support of the Trinidad and Tobago government, whose Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is on record as saying that those involved in the illegal drugs trade should be “killed violently”.
President Trump alleged at the time that “six male narcoterrorists” were killed in a boat allegedly ferrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States. But Washington is yet to release any evidence supporting the claims that the targeted boats have links to drug cartels designated by Trump as terrorist organisations.
The Trump administration has told members of Congress that the US is in a non-international armed conflict with drug cartels, citing that as justification for using lethal military force against alleged drug boats.
The lawsuit challenges that justification. It says that there is no armed conflict and that, therefore, the laws of war do not apply.
According to the lawsuit, the “United States’ unlawful killings of persons at sea, including Mr Joseph and Mr Samaroo, constitute wrongful deaths and extrajudicial killings.
“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”
The plaintiffs in the case are Lenore Burnley, Joseph’s mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister, and they are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
The family members are seeking punitive damages, the amount of which would be determined at trial.
“These are lawless killings in cold blood; killings for sport and killings for theatre,” CCR legal director Baher Azmy said, adding that the suit is “a critical step in ensuring accountability, while the individuals responsible may ultimately be answerable criminally for murder and war crimes”.
In a statement, Korasingh said her brother, who had spent 15 years in prison for participation in a homicide, “was a hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again.
“If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him,” she said.
According to the lawsuit, neither man was affiliated with drug cartels, and they were simply hitching a ride back to Trinidad from Venezuela, where they had been engaged in fishing and farm work.
Earlier this month, Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General, John Jeremie, said the US strikes were consistent with international law, based on advice he received from an international legal expert outside his office.
Jeremie said he sought external legal advice from an international expert outside the Office of the Attorney General before arriving at his conclusion.
“My first look at it, and the advice I took, is the strikes were consistent with international law. That was the advice given to me by an international expert,” said Jeremie, who refused to identify the international legal expert.
