VIRGINIA, USA: A federal appeals court was scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday about an appeal from a US military contractor ordered to pay $42 million for contributing to the torture and mistreatment of three former detainees at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago.
Reston, Virginia-based CACI appealed last year’s civil lawsuit verdict to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa’ad Al-Zubae testified at last year’s trial that that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at the prison during the US occupation of Iraq. A jury awarded them $3 million each in compensatory damages and $11 million each in punitive damages.
The three did not allege that CACI’s interrogators explicitly inflicted the abuse themselves, but argued CACI was complicit because its interrogators conspired with military police to “soften up” detainees for questioning with harsh treatment.
CACI supplied the interrogators who worked at the prison. It has denied any wrongdoing and has emphasized throughout 17 years of litigation that its employees are not alleged to have inflicted any abuse on the plaintiffs in the case.
