Human rights leader Tek Nath Rizal said that discussion have begun with Bruce Fein& Associates Inc, a law firm of Washington DC, to initiate legal procedures against the former king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, as torture suits.
Issuing a press statement on Saturday leader Rizal said that the firm, on behalf of the Bhutanese diaspora outside Bhutan, will file these suits worth hundreds of millions of dollars under the US Torture Victims Protection (TVP) Act, as compensation to the damages caused to thousands of victims of torture who have been forced to live in exiles as refugees during the rule of the king and even at present.
“The TVP Act endows both aliens and United States citizens with legal claims against foreign officials and administrators responsible for torture or extra-judicial killings perpetrated under the banner of draconian legislations,” said Rizal in his statement.
According to him, the United States of America is authorised to assert personal jurisdiction over foreign defendants because both torture and extra-judicial killings violate universal human rights laws and inflict injury on human civilization itself.
“The amount of damages in compensation that might be recovered in legal suits under the TVP Act against the former Bhutanese king would be close to one billion US dollars,” added Rizal.
Rizal said that the former king Jigme Singye and his family have amassed wealth comprising cash and assets well in excess of that sum through the gross misuse of funds from state exchequer and other national revenues as well as development funds provided to the country under bilateral and multilateral agreements.
