MADRID 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A United States jury has ordered the payment of 42 million dollars (about 39.5 million euros) in compensation to three Iraqi citizens who reported having suffered torture two decades ago in the Abu Ghraib prison at the hands of the forces. Americans.
The jury has determined that the contractor CACI International shares responsibility with the US Army in these abuses, in the first verdict in which a civilian company is declared legally responsible for the inhumane treatment of detainees in this prison.
According to information collected by the American newspaper ‘The Washington Post’, CACI employees worked as interrogators in this prison, located west of Baghdad, under a contract with the United States Government after the start of the invasion of Iraq. which resulted in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
The company’s lawyers defended during the process that none of them were responsible for abuses, although the complainants’ lawyers stated that the interrogators ordered the military personnel to “soften” the detainees before the sessions, which led to in violations of their rights.
For this reason, Baher Azmy, one of the lawyers of the three complainants, has said that this is “an important moment” for justice. The complainants are Salá al Ejaili, a journalist living in Sweden; Asad al Zubae, a store owner in Iraq; and Suhail al Shimari, a school principal.
The three said they were forced to remain in uncomfortable positions, undress or were threatened by unmuzzled dogs after being sent to Abu Ghraib in November 2003, although they are not among those photographed at the detention center.
However, one of CACI’s lawyers, John O’Connor Jr., has stated in court that there is no evidence that Al Ejaili was interrogated by the Army and that the accusations of these three men were not corroborated by other witnesses, although he said that the abuse of detainees was a stain on the United States.
The prison, built in the 1950s and closed in 2014, was used by the Hussein regime to imprison and torture prisoners. After the US invasion, numerous images of abuse and torture by US troops were published. The United States transferred control of it to Iraqi authorities in 2006.
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