RICHMOND, Va. — On Tuesday, a federal appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments regarding an appeal by CACI, a U.S. military contractor, ordered to pay $42 million due to its involvement in the torture and mistreatment of three former detainees at Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison. This pivotal case revolves around a civil lawsuit verdict reached last year by a jury.
CACI, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, contested the verdict awarded by a jury in which Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili, and Asa’ad Al-Zubae testified about their harrowing experiences of beatings, sexual abuse, and forced nudity while detained during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Each plaintiff received $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $11 million each in punitive damages.
While the plaintiffs did not directly accuse CACI's interrogators of the abuse, they argued that CACI was complicit in creating an environment wherein military police inflicted harsh treatment on detainees to 'soften them up' for questioning. CACI supplied these interrogators for the prison.
Over the course of 17 years of litigation, CACI has continued to assert its employees did not inflict any abuse upon the plaintiffs. The contractor emphasizes that although military personnel involved faced proceedings, none of the civilian interrogators from CACI were criminally prosecuted even after military investigations established various instances of wrongdoing.
Images that surfaced in 2004 depicting the abuse at Abu Ghraib shocked the world and showed prisoners subjected to humiliating conditions. Although the three plaintiffs were not featured in these images, they recounted treatment echoing what was illustrated.
The trial last year marked the first time U.S. jurors had heard claims from Abu Ghraib detainees in the two decades following the release of the controversial photographs. The $42 million awarded to the plaintiffs matched the amount they initially sought and exceeded the $31 million that CACI reportedly received for their services at the prison.
