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.