Photos of tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq caused horror around 20 years ago. Eleven US soldiers have since been convicted. Now three former prisoners have been awarded millions in compensation.
A US federal court has ordered a US security company to pay $42 million (€39.5 million) in damages to three Iraqis who were tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad during the Iraq War.
Virginia-based CACI Premier Technology was held responsible for its role in the torture of men at the prison in 2003 and 2004, the non-governmental organization Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said. At the time, the company was commissioned by the US Army to interrogate prisoners.
“A great day for me and justice”
The federal court has now awarded compensation of $14 million each to a school principal, a fruit seller and a journalist. They were arrested after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The three men testified that they were beaten and sexually abused in Abu Ghraib during the US occupation of Iraq around 20 years ago. They were also stripped naked against their will and subjected to other brutal torture methods.
“Today is a great day for me and for justice,” the CCR quoted journalist Salah al-Ejaili, who now lives in Sweden, as saying. CCR boss Baher Azmy said their three mandates had fought courageously for 16 years for compensation “for the horrors they experienced in Abu Ghraib.” In the end, they were successful despite the obstacles put in their way by the now convicted company CACI. It was only in 2014 that the US judiciary cleared the way for the security company to be sued.
Worldwide outrage and eleven US soldiers convicted
The Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad was at the center of a torture scandal that became public in the spring of 2004 when photos of mistreated inmates were published. The torture of the inmates by US soldiers and US guards caused outrage around the world. Eleven US soldiers were sentenced to several years in prison between 2004 and 2006. The then US President George W. Bush and his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the incidents.
After the attacks on September 11, 2001 in the USA with almost 3,000 deaths, the USA began a global “campaign against terror”, as a result of which they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. When pursuing suspects, the US secret service CIA used torture in secret prisons.
