Iraqis tortured by American defense contractors at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison are still seeking justice in U.S. courts, which will hear their claims in early 2012.

 

Human rights attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights are assisting the Iraqis who want the U.S. contractors held accountable for violating federal, state and international law by subjecting the foreign citizens to cruel, inhuman treatment. The allegations include rape, severe beatings and mock executions.

 

The contractors under scrutiny worked for L-3 Services and CACI International. None of them have been subjected to criminal prosecutions, according to Laura Raymond, advocacy program manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights, “so the only path currently available for any accountability is through these human rights lawsuits.”

 

In the case of Al Shimari v. CACI, CACI employees Steven Stefanowicz and Daniel Johnson are accused of responsibility for Iraqis being subjected to electric shocks, sexual assaults, broken bones, deprivation of oxygen, mock executions and being forced to watch the rape of a female prisoner.

 

In Al-Quraishi v. Nakhla, L-3 employee Adel Nakhla, a U.S. citizen, is accused of holding down a 14-year-old boy while he was being raped with a toothbrush and of holding down a prisoner while feces was poured on him.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Do Private Military Contractors Have Impunity to Torture? (by Laura Raymond, Fire Dog Lake)

Accountability for Torture by Private Military Contractors: The Cases against Titan/L-3 and CACI (Center for Constitutional Rights) (pdf)

Serbs Given Go-Ahead by U.S. Court to Sue Defense Contractors over Genocide (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)