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January 9, 2013

U.S. Military Contractor to Compensate Abu Ghraib Torture Victims 
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A U.S. military contractor has agreed to pay a more than $5 million
settlement to 71 former prisoners who suffered torture at the notorious
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Engility Holdings, formerly known as L-3
Services and before that Titan Corporation, becomes the first U.S.
corporation involved in the abuses at Abu Ghraib to compensate its
victims, eight years after the scandal first broke. Filed in 2008, the
suit accused Engility of "[permitting] scores of its employees to
participate in torturing and abusing prisoners over an extended period
of time throughout Iraq." One of the plaintiffs, an Iraqi farmer,
alleges he was caged, beaten, threatened with dogs and given electric
shocks during more than four years in U.S. detention. A case against
another contractor, CACI, is set to go to trial later this year.

 

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