A Virginia-based defense contractor has been ordered to pay $42 million to three torture victims held at Abu Ghraib prison during the early years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

CACI International, the company in question, wasn’t directly responsible for the torture that the men endured. However, within the lawsuit, the three men — Iraqi citizens Suhail Al Shimari, a high school principal; Asa’ad Al-Zubae, a fruit vendor; and journalist Salah Al-Ejaili — argued that CACI was complicit in the violence against them because interrogators from the company had conspired with military police to “soften up” the detainees, effectively making their torture more likely to happen.

The eight-member jury in the civil lawsuit agreed, finding CACI partially liable for the harm done to the three men, and awarding each of them a $3 million compensatory judgment and $11 million in punitive damages.

The inhumane and degrading torture that took place at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 made headlines around the world, and has become one of the most symbolic legacies of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. . Military police subjected Iraqis at the prison to severe beatings, forced them to be nude in compromising positions, sexually abused them, and carried out other cruel actions, including photographing them as they were being tortured — photographs that were eventually published, leading to international outcry. At least one detainee also died as a result of their treatment.

The three men in the lawsuit said they were subjected to those same kinds of torture, although none of them were photographed by military staff.

The verdict came after several years of legal maneuvering by CACI, ever since the three men first filed the suit in 2008. CACI maintained that, due to its role as a government contractor, the real........

© Truthout