A Bellevue man was one of seven people awarded $21 million by a federal judge in a lawsuit claiming they were tortured by a former Somalian prime minister.

Seven Somali natives, including Aziz Deria of Bellevue, filed the lawsuit in 2004 in federal court in Alexandria, Va. against Mohamed Ali Samantar, who served as vice president, defense minister and prime minister throughout the 1980s under dictator Siad Barre, until the months before the regime collapsed in 1991.

The lawsuit alleges that Samantar ordered mass killings of members of minority clan in Somalia.

“The case was never about money,” Deria told the Associated Press following the verdict. “This case was about having an opportunity to be in court with Samantar and prove he was in charge of what was happening.”

During the trial, the plaintiffs presented evidence including a 1989 BBC interview in which Samantar claimed leadership over a bombing in the northern portion of the country. The evidence also included testimony from an army colonel who heard radio messages in which Barre was urging moderation in a bombing campaign, while Samantar advocated a harsher attack.