by Steve Sweeney
International editor

US businessman Ross Roggio has been charged with torturing a worker in Iraqi Kurdistan while he was managing the construction of a weapons factory in the semi-autonomous region in 2015.

The Pennsylvania man arranged for Kurdish peshmerga forces to abduct the employee for more than a month after he raised concerns over the project, a US Justice Department statement said on Friday.

“The grand jury charges that the defendant directed and participated in the systematic torture of an employee over the course of 39 days by Kurdish soldiers in Iraq,” US Attorney John C Gurganus said.

According to the indictment, Mr Roggio led multiple interrogation sessions during which he directed Kurdish soldiers to suffocate the victim with a bag, tasering him in the groin and other areas of his body.

They are alleged to have beaten him with fists and rubber hoses, jumped violently on his chest while wearing military boots, and threatened to cut off one of the victim’s fingers under the instructions of the US citizen.

On at least one occasion, the indictment said, Mr Roggio wrapped his belt around the victim’s neck, yanked him off the ground, and suspended him in the air, causing him to lose consciousness.

“The heinous acts of violence that Ross Roggio directed and inflicted upon the victim were blatant human rights violations that will not be tolerated,” FBI assistant director Luis Quesada said.

Mr Roggio and the Roggio Consulting Company LLC were charged in 2018 with illegally exporting firearms parts and tools from the US to Iraq and part of the weapons project in Kurdistan.

He faces a maximum 20 years in jail for each of the torture charges and a maximum statutory penalty of 705 years’ imprisonment for the remaining 37 counts.