Victims of Abu Ghraib torture win US civil case, $42 million in damages
Three Iraqi men who were abused at Abu Ghraib jail have been told that a US army contractor must pay them $42 million.
After 15 years in court, the decision on Tuesday ends the case about the part of Virginia-based contractor CACI in the torture that happened at the prison. CACI’s regular workers were there.
The jurors found the company guilty and gave Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili, and Asa’ad Al-Zubae $3 million each in compensatory damages and $11 million each in punitive damages.
The result comes after a different federal trial in May finished with no clear winner.
“Big day for justice”
Al-Ejaili, a writer, Al-Zuba’e, a fruit seller, and Al Shimari, a middle school director, all said in court that they were beaten, sexually abused, made to be naked, and treated badly in other ways at Abu Ghraib.
They didn’t say that CACI’s interrogators did the abuse directly, but they did say that CACI was involved because its interrogators worked with military police to “soften up” prisoners for questioning by treating them badly.
Two former US Army generals wrote reports about the abuse and came to the conclusion that more than one CACI interrogator was involved in it.
The suit says that most of the abuse happened at the end of 2003, when CACI workers were in the jail.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Baher Azmy, from the Centre for Constitutional Rights, called the verdict “an important measure of justice and accountability.” He also praised the three plaintiffs for their strength, “especially in the face of all the obstacles CACI threw their way.”
Azmy said that the $42m is exactly what the claimants were asking for.
“Today is a big day for me and for justice,” Al-Ejaili said as he crossed the pond to appear in court. “This day has been a long time coming.” This win isn’t just for the three people who sued a company and won this case. This win shines a bright light on everyone who has been mistreated and sends a strong message to any company or agency that tortures or abuses people in different ways.
The lawsuit was first brought in 2008, but it wasn’t filed until after 15 years of legal trouble and several attempts by CACI to have the case thrown out.
Private companies will have to answer for their actions.
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The trial and later retry were the first times a US jury had heard claims from residents of Abu Ghraib in the 20 years since photos of laughing US soldiers abusing prisoners shocked the world while the US was in Iraq.
The three claimants were not in any of the famous pictures that were shown in news stories around the world, but they said they were treated in ways that were very similar to what was shown.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that the US government has not yet taken responsibility for paying any Abu Ghraib torture and abuse victims.
There were sexual attacks and beatings during Al Shimari’s two months in jail. He also said that someone shocked him with electricity and pulled him around the jail by a rope around his neck. It was the stress positions that Al-Ejaili said made him vomit black liquid. He was also not allowed to sleep, made to wear women’s pants and shown dogs as a threat.
CACI had said it wasn’t involved in the abuse of the prisoners. It said that its workers didn’t have much contact with the three plaintiffs in the case, and CACI said that some parts of the plaintiffs’ stories were not believable because military records contradicted some of their claims.
Private companies will have to answer for their actions
The CACI said that the US government was responsible for mistreating them. It used the “borrowed servants” theory as a legal argument to say that it shouldn’t be responsible for any wrongdoing by its employees if the US Army was in charge of them.
Lawyers for the claimants said that CACI was to blame for the bad behaviour of its own workers. They said that it is clear from CACI’s deal with the US Army and the Army Field Manual that CACI is in charge of managing its own employees.
Lawyer Katherine Gallagher of the Centre for Constitutional Rights said she was glad with the verdict and warned private military and security contractors that they will be held responsible if they break the most basic international law protections, such as the ban on torture.