International Courant
Detainees from Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq who allege abuse will testify in entrance of a U.S. jury for the primary time in a lawsuit in opposition to Virginia-based army contractor CACI.CACI’s attorneys questioned whether or not the plaintiffs can show they have been abused, or that CACI interrogators inflicted abuse on them. Regardless, attorneys claimed the U.S. army, not the corporate, oversaw the interrogators’ conduct.After being delayed for greater than 15 years, the trial is now transferring in a short time.
A former detainee on the notorious Abu Ghraib jail described to jurors Monday the kind of abuse that’s paying homage to the scandal that erupted there 20 years in the past: beatings, being stripped bare and threatened with canines, stress positions meant to induce exhaustion and ache.
The testimony from Salah Al-Ejaili, a former Al-Jazeera journalist who spent greater than a month at Abu Ghraib in 2003, marks the primary time that survivors of the U.S. jail in Iraq have been in a position to deliver their claims of torture to a U.S. jury.
Al-Ejaili and two different Abu Ghraib detainees are suing Virginia-based army contractor CACI, accusing the corporate of contributing to their torture by sending over civilian interrogators as a part of an Military contract. The go well with cites proof in authorities investigations that CACI contractors inspired army police to “soften up” detainees forward of their interrogations.
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CACI’s lawyer, John O’Connor, acknowledged that some Abu Ghraib detainees suffered horrific abuse, however supplied a three-pronged protection for the corporate in his opening assertion to the jury.
First, he questioned whether or not the three detainees who filed the lawsuit can truly show they themselves have been abused. They aren’t pictured within the extensively circulated images that leaked in 2004 when information of the abuse broke and shocked the world. He instructed the jury that official information present no formal interrogations of Al-Ejaili, for example, despite the fact that he testified that he was interrogated many instances, and regularly overwhelmed on the outset of every interrogation.
The jury obtained a written declaration from the U.S. authorities confirming that no formal interrogation information exist, however that declaration additionally vaguely mentioned that “different info” exists that may present a CACI interrogator questioned Al-Ejaili at one level.
This late 2003 picture exhibits an unidentified detainee standing on a field with a bag on his head and wires hooked up to him within the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad, Iraq. A trial scheduled to start on April 15, 2024, would be the first time that survivors of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail will deliver their claims of torture to a U.S. jury. (AP Photograph, File)
CACI’s lawyer additionally mentioned that even when the three plaintiffs have been abused, there is no proof that CACI interrogators inflicted abuse on them. He mentioned the troopers seen smiling in photographs subsequent to bare, abused detainees have been those who inflicted the abuse, and so they have been rightly convicted of crimes in army trials way back.
“They have been MPs who have been sadistic, who did it on their very own, and with none encouragement,” O’Connor mentioned, of the vary in army police.
Lastly, he mentioned that even when CACI staff engaged in wrongdoing, it was the U.S. army, not the corporate, that oversaw the interrogators’ conduct. He rejected the notion that CACI civilians selected their very own to abuse detainees.
“The Military is fairly jealous about who has management of operations in a conflict zone,” he argued.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Baher Azmy, mentioned it is irrelevant whether or not CACI interrogators immediately inflicted abuse on his purchasers. The corporate is liable, he mentioned, as a result of CACI interrogators conspired with army police by urging them to abuse detainees earlier than questioning.
He mentioned the jury will hear from two Military generals, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba and Maj. Gen. George Fay, who concluded from an investigation that there was a void within the chain of command that was stuffed by civilians. Taguba’s report concluded that at the very least one CACI interrogator needs to be held accountable for instructing army police to arrange circumstances that amounted to bodily abuse.
“This case is about one of the disturbing and shameful occasions in latest American historical past,” Azmy mentioned on the outset of his opening assertion.
The trial at U.S. District Courtroom in Alexandria, which was delayed for greater than 15 years amid authorized wrangling and a number of appeals, is now transferring at a breakneck tempo. On Monday alone, a jury was seated, opening arguments have been heard, and three key witnesses testified, together with Al-Ejaili; a former CACI interrogator, Torin Nelson, who testified about his issues in regards to the actions of a few of his colleagues; and former Military Cpl. Charles Graner, one of many army police who was tried and convicted in courts-martial for abusing detainees.
Nelson testified that the opposite interrogators lacked expertise, and he was dismayed when he noticed unprofessional feedback on their studies, like an interrogator who famous in a single report {that a} detainee “is crying like a bit of child within the nook.”
On cross-examination, he mentioned that he had not witnessed bodily abuse by any CACI interrogator.
“I had issues however I wasn’t witnessing something with my very own eyes,” Nelson mentioned.
Graner’s testimony got here within the type of a recorded 2013 video deposition that was performed to the jury wherein he mentioned civilian interrogators gave him directions on tips on how to deal with detainees, and instructed him he was doing an excellent job.
Al-Ejaili’s testimony was emotional and he choked up a number of instances as he described the abuse. He recalled that he was bare in a chilly cell and requested a feminine soldier if he may have one thing to put on. She returned with crimson girls’s underwear.
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On one other event, investigators handcuffed his arms to a pipe whereas his ft dangled. He instructed the jury, by an Arabic interpreter, that it felt “as in case your shoulders are being pulled from their place.”
He mentioned with the ability to inform his story now to a jury, even 20 years later, was necessary to him.
“It is a massive alternative to inform folks my story,” he mentioned. “Maybe it is like a type of therapy or a treatment.”
Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail detainee shares emotional testimony in trial in opposition to Virginia army contractor
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