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A US jury has awarded $42m (£33m) to 3 former detainees of Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib jail, holding a Virginia-based defence contractor answerable for contributing to their abuse twenty years in the past.
The verdict in opposition to CACI Premier Technology comes from the second trial of this case. The first resulted in a mistrial in spring after a jury was unable to succeed in a choice.
The courtroom heard instantly from plaintiffs Suhail al-Shimari, Salah al-Ejaili and Asa’advert al-Zubae, who first filed the case in 2008.
They described beatings, sexual abuse, compelled nudity and different merciless remedy by the hands of their jailers.
CACI provided interrogators to the US Army on the jail west of Baghdad. In courtroom, legal professionals for the contractor argued that its workers weren’t instantly concerned within the abuse, which was carried out by navy police.
But the jury sided with the plaintiffs and their claims that CACI was nonetheless liable, as a result of the interrogators they provided had instructed the navy police to “soften up” the detainees.
CACI stated in an announcement that it had been made a scapegoat.
“To be clear: no CACI worker has ever been charged – criminally, civilly, or administratively – on this matter,” the company said.
The landmark verdict reportedly marks the first time a civilian contractor has been held legally responsible for the degrading treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
The jury awarded plaintiffs Mr al-Shimari, a middle school headmaster, Mr al-Ejaili, a journalist, and Mr al-Zubae, a fruit vendor, $3m each in compensatory damages and $11m each in punitive damages.
“I’ve waited a very long time for at the present time,” Mr al-Ejaili said in a statement after the verdict. “This victory is a shining gentle for everybody who has been oppressed and a powerful warning to any firm or contractor practising completely different types of torture and abuse.”
Hundreds of men were arrested and held at Abu Ghraib by US forces after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 2004, disturbing images from the prison were leaked, including one showing a soldier pulling a naked inmate on a dog leash. The photographs incited widespread condemnation.
Eleven US troopers have been convicted of breaking navy legal guidelines, however many obtained sentences of a only a few years. The final remaining soldier in jail convicted within the case was launched in August 2011.
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