BBC News, 9
January 2013
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| The US handed over control of all of its detainment centres to Iraq in 2010 |
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A defence
contractor whose subsidiary was accused of conspiring to torture Abu Ghraib
prisoners has settled with former inmates for $5m (£3m).
US firm
Engility Holdings paid 71 people held at Abu Ghraib, Baghdad, and other US-run
prisons, on behalf of L-3 Services, according to a legal filing found by the
Associated Press.
L-3
provided translators to the US military in post-war Iraq.
Images of
abuse at Abu Ghraib in 2004 sparked international outage.
Another
contractor which provided interrogators to the US military, CACI, is expected
to go to trial over similar allegations.
The US
government is immune from lawsuits stemming from combat actions by the military
in time of war, but courts are still establishing whether independent firms
operating in war zones should have the same legal immunity.
The
Engility settlement marks the first successful effort by lawyers for former
Iraqi prisoners against defence contractors in lawsuits alleging torture.
A lawyer
for the ex-detainees, Baher Azmy told the BBC's Newsday programme that each of
the 71 Iraqis received a portion of the settlement for suffering "a vast
and grim arsenal of torture and abuse".
He did not
say how the money was distributed, and said there was an agreement to keep
details of the settlement confidential.
Mr Azmy,
legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights., said that although
some soldiers were court-martialled for their role in abuses at Abu Ghraib, the
US Army had not sought to prosecute private contractors.
"This
litigation attempts to close that gap in accountability and hold corporations -
who, by the way, made millions and millions of dollars from US government work
in Iraq - accountable, and give back some of those extravagant profits to
individuals they harmed," said Mr Azmy.
Engility
Holdings said it did not comment on legal matters.
Abu Ghraib
came to world attention after the release in 2004 of photographs showing the
physical, sexual and psychological abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US guards.
The images
showed prisoners facing dogs, being stripped naked and wired up as if being
subjected to electric shocks and became a turning point of the Iraq war.
Eleven
soldiers were convicted of breaking military laws, but many received sentences
of a just a few years. The last remaining soldier in prison convicted in the
case was released in August 2011.
 |
| The European court of human rights has ruled German citizen Khaled el-Masri was tortured by CIA agents, the first time the court has described treatment meted out by the CIA as torture. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/AP |
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