Three Abu Ghraib prisoners receive $42 million in compensation from the US.
According to France 24, a US jury on Tuesday ordered a US Department of Defense contractor to pay $42 million in damages to three Iraqi men who were tortured and abused by US forces at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
The news was announced by the lawyers of the three Iraqi men. The three Iraqi men are Suhail al-Shimri, Salah al-Ajaili and Asad al-Zubayyah, who were tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004 by US military contractors CACI Premier Technology.
The lawsuit filed by the three Iraqi men against the US Department of Defense company, CACI Premier Technology, was filed in 2008 in Arlington, Virginia, but it took 16 years due to legal battles and the US company’s repeated attempts to close the case.
This is the first time in 20 years that an American court has heard a case brought by Abu Ghraib prisoners; Abu Ghraib prison abuses made headlines around the world after images of the abuse of prisoners were released.
Abu Ghraib prison, 32 kilometers west of Baghdad, was controlled by US and coalition forces in cooperation with the Iraqi government from 2003 to August 2006. In addition to holding and detaining suspects and convicts, the Abu Ghraib complex was also used as a military base and a base for US-led coalition forces.
In April 2004, the issue gained international attention when images of Abu Ghraib were released on CBS’s 60 Minutes program, citing a New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh about the torture and abuse of prisoners and extrajudicial killings by US military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison.
CACI released a statement stating that much of what is being called the abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners was done with the approval and approval of then-US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and was included in the rules and procedures for military commanders interacting with the prison.