U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Congo Torture Immunity Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a denial of immunity for Congolese officials sued for the alleged torture of an American citizen, leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that could have far reaching implications for U.S. foreign policy interests and suits against American officials.

In rejecting the appeal from two Democratic Republic of the Congo officials, the justices left in place an appeals court ruling that the officials argued “opens U.S. courts to a flood of suits against foreign officials—even where the alleged conduct was undertaken on behalf of, and ratified by, the foreign state.”

American citizen and security contractor Darryl Lewis was arrested in the Congo for illegally working as a foreign mercenary. He later sued two of that country’s high-ranking officials, Kalev Mutond and Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 for alleged torture over a six-week period.

The district court in Washington dismissed the case on immunity grounds. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated that ruling, prompting the officials to appeal to the justices. The officials warned that the appeals court ruling will encourage lawsuits that “undermine U.S. foreign-policy interests and put U.S. officials at serious risk of reciprocal treatment in foreign courts.”

Opposing high court review, Lewis said, “given that the State Department declined a suggestion of immunity in this case,” the officials’ “exaggerated claims of a potential diplomatic crisis fall flat.”

The Justice Department, though not a party to the case, also weighed in at the Supreme Court’s invitation.

DOJ urged the justices to take the case, arguing that the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, if left undisturbed, “could open the District Court for the District of Columbia to suits challenging a variety of foreign military or policy decisions, could invite similar treatment of this Nation’s officials by other states, and could seriously interfere with the Executive Branch’s conduct of foreign relations.”

The case is Mutond v. Lewis, U.S., No. 19-185, review denied.