Cite as: 507 U. S. 349 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
Paul Schott Stevens argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Leonard Garment, Abraham D. Sofaer, William R. Stein, and Anthony D'Amato.*
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 entitles foreign states to immunity from the jurisdiction of courts in the United States, 28 U. S. C. § 1604, subject to certain enumerated exceptions. § 1605. One is that a foreign state shall not be immune in any case "in which the action is based upon a commercial activity carried on in the United States by the foreign state." § 1605(a)(2). We hold that respondents' action alleging personal injury resulting from unlawful detention and torture by the Saudi Government is not "based upon a commercial activity" within the meaning of the Act, which consequently confers no jurisdiction over respondents' suit.
I
Because this case comes to us on a motion to dismiss the complaint, we assume that we have truthful factual allegations before us, see United States v. Gaubert, 499 U. S. 315, 327 (1991), though many of those allegations are subject to dispute, see Brief for Petitioners 3, n. 3; see also n. 1, infra. Petitioner Kingdom of Saudi Arabia owns and operates petitioner King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, as well as petitioner Royspec Purchasing Services, the hospital's corporate purchasing agent in the United States. App. 91. The Hospital Corporation of America, Ltd. (HCA), an independent corporation existing under the laws of the Cayman Islands, recruits Americans for employment at the hospital
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for Human Rights Watch by Ellen Lutz, Kenneth Roth, and Jeffrey L. Braun; and for the International Human Rights Law Group et al. by Douglas G. Robinson, Julia E. Sullivan, Andrew L. Sandler, Michael Ratner, Steven M. Schneebaum, Janelle M. Diller, and Harold Koh.
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