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Former detainees of the infamous Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq gained Tuesday a $42 million verdict in a civil trial in Virginia in opposition to a protection contractor that was accused of helping the U.S. army in abusing prisoners held on the website within the early 2000s.
The decision in opposition to CACI Premier Know-how, which relies in Reston, Va., comes after a earlier trial in April resulted in a hung jury. A second trial started in late October on the U.S. District Court docket in Alexandria.
It additionally comes after years of authorized delays earlier than the primary trial was ever heard. The plaintiffs first filed the case in 2008.
The jury on Tuesday awarded the plaintiffs — Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa’advert Al-Zubae — $3 million every on compensatory damages and $11 million every in punitive damages.
The plaintiffs had described bodily torture and abuse on the Abu Ghraib jail, additionally known as the Baghdad Central Confinement Facility, which shut down in 2014.
The worst abuses allegedly occurred between October and December 2003, simply months after the U.S. first invaded Iraq as a part of the worldwide battle on terrorism.
Abu Ghraib was a facility run by the army police because the U.S. seemed to trace down and interrogate suspects over alleged hyperlinks to terrorist teams, together with al-Qaeda.
In 2004, Abu Ghraib was the middle of controversy after photographs leaked of the alleged abuse, and the U.S. army later decided mistreatment occurred on the website. Eleven U.S. army officers had been convicted and court-martialed over their involvement.
Within the Virginia civil trial, the plaintiffs sought to tie CACI to the abuse. The protection contractor had employed civilian interrogators on the time, and legal professionals argued that they had been answerable for softening up the detainees for the army.
Al-Zubae testified over the spring that he suffers from psychological and bodily scars from his time on the jail, the place he says he was disadvantaged of clothes and blankets, attacked by fight canines and threatened with rape. Jail guards additionally threatened his household, he stated.
Different allegations of abuse embody detainees being overwhelmed with brooms, compelled to pile on high of one another whereas bare and threats with 9mm pistols.
CACI had argued that army police acted of their very own accord and there was no proof tying the contractors to the abuse.
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