CACI to appeal $42M verdict in Abu Ghraib torture case

CACI International will appeal a jury verdict that found the company shares some responsibility with the U.S. Army for abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison during the early years of the war in Iraq.

The jury awarded $42 million in damages to three Iraqi men, who claimed to have been tortured at the prison. The verdict was handed down on Tuesday.

CACI employees worked as interrogators at the prison under a contract with the U.S. government.

“We are extremely disappointed in the verdict announced today,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to WT. “For nearly two decades, CACI has been wrongly subjected to long-term, negative affiliation with the unfortunate and reckless actions of a group of military police at Abu Ghraib prison from 2003 through 2004.”

The Army personnel were court-martialed and punished, but no CACI employees have been charged.

“CACI employees did not take part in nor were any of our employees responsible for these disturbing events,” the spokesperson said. “Our view remains that there is no evidence of a conspiracy to abuse detainees, and we will continue to pursue justice by appealing this verdict.”

Lawyers for the three Iraqi plaintiffs said CACI interrogators told military personnel to “soften up” detainees before questioning and that led to abuses across the facility, according to a Washington Post report on the jury verdict.

This is the first time a jury has found a civilian contractor legally responsible for abuses at the prison west of Bagdad, according to the Post.

A jury of six women and two men deliberated for one and a half days at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

CACI’s lawyers argued that no evidence was produced connecting company employees to the abuses at the prison, and that contractors did not direct the actions by military personnel.

“You didn’t have a single witness who has a single memory of these plaintiffs,” CACI’s lawyer John F. O’Connor Jr. said during closing arguments, according to the Post. “This is a political case, where they’re trying to get a civilian contractor.”