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(116,464 posts)
Wed Jan 9, 2013, 09:55 AM Jan 2013

APNewsBreak: Defense contractor pays $5M to Iraqis who alleged torture at Abu Ghraib

APNewsBreak: $5M paid to Iraqis over Abu Ghraib
APNewsBreak: Defense contractor pays $5M to Iraqis who alleged torture at Abu Ghraib

By Pete Yost, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A defense contractor whose subsidiary was accused in a lawsuit of conspiring to torture detainees at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has paid $5.28 million to 71 former inmates held there and at other U.S.-run detention sites between 2003 and 2007.

The settlement in the case involving Engility Holdings Inc. of Chantilly, Va., marks the first successful effort by lawyers for former prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers to collect money from a U.S. defense contractor in lawsuits alleging torture. Another contractor, CACI, is expected to go to trial over similar allegations this summer.

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On Tuesday, a lawyer for the ex-detainees, Baher Azmy, said that each of the 71 Iraqis received a portion of the settlement. Azmy declined to say how the money was distributed among them. He said there was an agreement to keep details of the settlement confidential.

"Private military contractors played a serious but often under-reported role in the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib," said Azmy, the legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "We are pleased that this settlement provides some accountability for one of those contractors and offers some measure of justice for the victims."

http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-5m-paid-iraqis-over-133648141.html



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