For the first time since the Abu Ghraib scandal broke nearly 10 years ago, a U.S. contractor has agreed to pay restitution to the Iraqis who were tortured at the infamous prison and other locations run by the American military.

L-3 Services, Inc., which provided translators used during interrogations of Iraqis, wound up costing its parent company, Engility Holdings, more than $5 million to settle claims from 71 defendants who sued in a U.S. court.

Rather than let the case go to trial, Engility, in October 2012, agreed to quietly settle the lawsuit out of court. The $5.28 million agreement was only discovered after the Associated Press found it buried in a report that the company made to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the former detainees, said that each plaintiff received an undisclosed portion of the settlement.

“Private military contractors played a serious but often under-reported role in the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib,” Azmy, the legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, told the news service. “We are pleased that this settlement provides some accountability for one of those contractors and offers some measure of justice for the victims.”

In the civil complaint, L-3 Services was accused of allowing its “employees to participate in torturing and abusing prisoners over an extended period of time throughout Iraq,” and failing to report “repeated assaults and other criminal conduct by its employees to the United States or Iraq authorities.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

US Defence Contractor Pays $5M To Iraqis Who Alleged Torture At Abu Ghraib (by Pete Yost, Associated Press)

A Decade Later, Contractor Pays Out Millions for Iraq Prisoner Abuse (by Robert Beckhusen, Wired)

Iraqis Win $5.8m From US Firm In Abu Ghraib Torture Lawsuit (by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent)

Engility Holdings Quarterly Report (page 11) (Securities and Exchange Commission)

Private Contractor Torture Cases Given Go-Ahead by Federal Court (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Are Military Contractors Free to Commit Torture without Punishment? (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)