The Court Filing – The New York Times

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
elements: severity and purpose.
“620
police brutality.”
619
These elements serve to distinguish true torture from “mere
The first inquiry is severity. The D.C. Circuit explained, “The critical issue is
“621
the degree of pain and suffering that the alleged torturer intended to, and actually did, inflict upon
the victim. The more intense, lasting, or heinous the agony, the more likely it is to be torture.”
The court gave “sustained systematic beating” and “tying up or hanging in positions that cause
extreme pain” as examples of “extreme, deliberate and unusually cruel practices” that meet the
severity requirement of torture. 622 It is permissible to infer the intent to cause pain from the facts
of the abuse. 623 Courts have characterized treatment milder than that at issue here as torture.
624
(note) [hereinafter TVPA]. TVPA, like § 2340, draws its definition from CAT. See Price, 294
F.3d at 92.
619
Price, 294 F.3d at 92; Warmbier v. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 356 F. Supp.
3d 30, 46 (D.D.C. 2018) (“To establish torture, the plaintiffs must show that the conduct was
sufficiently severe and purposeful.”).
620
Price, 294 F.3d at 93.
621 Id.
622 Id. at 92-93 (quoting S. Exec. Rep. No. 101-30, at 14 (1990)); see also Fritz v. Islamic
Republic of Iran, 320 F. Supp. 3d 48, 80 (D.D.C. 2018) (“And, on the other extreme, we know,
for example, that ‘sustained systematic beating… and tying up or hanging in positions that cause
extreme pain’ clearly cross the line.” (quoting Price, 294 F.3d at 93)).
623
Fritz, 320 F. Supp. 3d at 82.
624 See, e.g., Allan v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49541 (D.D.C. Mar. 25,
2019) (describing punches, kicks, sexually assaults, slaps, stress positions, refusal of access to food
and water, denial lavatories, mock executions, threats, and imprisonment in apartments, garages,
and basement prisons as torture).
Filed with TJ
15 May 2019
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Appellate Exhibit 628 (AAA)
Page 187 of 1205