ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Pennsylvania man was arrested by American security forces on Thursday and later charged for torturing an unnammed victim when running a wepaons factory in the Kurdistan Region in 2015, the US Department of Justice, announced on Friday.
The department said in a statement that Ross Roggio, 53, was running a project in the Kurdistan Region in 2015 to construct a weapons factory, citing the indictment against the man.
“The superseding indictment alleges that one of Roggio’s employees raised concerns about the weapons project and, to prevent the employee from interfering with the weapons project, Roggio arranged for Kurdish soldiers to abduct the employee,” added the statement.
Roggio and his Roggio Consulting Company LLC were charged in a 37-count indictment in 2018 for “illegally exporting firearms parts and tools from the United States to Iraq as part of the weapons project in Kurdistan. The superseding indictment adds the torture charges to the previously charged offenses,” according to the department.
Roggio, who also commanded a number of Kurdish soldiers, had held the victim for 39 days, interrogating him. He had “directed Kurdish soldiers to suffocate the victim with a bag, taser the victim in the groin and other areas of his body, beat the victim with fists and rubber hoses, jump violently on the victim’s chest while wearing military boots, and threaten to cut off one of the victim’s fingers while applying pressure to the finger with a large cutting tool,” noted the statement. “The superseding indictment also alleges that on at least one occasion, Roggio wrapped his belt around the victim’s neck, yanked the victim off the ground, and suspended him in the air, causing the victim to lose consciousness.”
If convicted, Roggio could be sentenced to up to 725 years in prison for all counts. “A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”
“Roggio is the second U.S. citizen – and the fourth defendant overall – to be charged with violating the torture statute since the law went into effect in 1994,” read the statement by the department.
The torture charges against Roggio are being investigated by the FBI and Home Security investigations.
