US contractor held liable for torture, with jury awarding $42m to Abu Ghraib survivors

A United States defense contractor must pay $42m to three Iraqi men who were tortured at Abu Ghraib prison, a US federal jury has ruled.

The ruling on Tuesday ends a 15-year legal battle over the role of Virginia-based contractor CACI, whose civilian employees worked at the facility, in acts of torture that took place there.

In holding the firm liable, the jury awarded plaintiffs Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa’ad Al-Zubae $3m each in compensatory damages and $11m each in punitive damages.

The decision comes after a separate federal trial in May ended in a hung jury.

Al Shimari, a middle school principal, Al-Ejaili, a journalist, and Al-Zuba’e, a fruit vendor, testified that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at Abu Ghraib.

While they did not allege that CACI’s interrogators explicitly inflicted the abuse themselves, they argued that CACI was complicit because its interrogators conspired with military police to “soften up” detainees for questioning with harsh treatment.