US Supreme Court rejects contractor’s Abu Ghraib torture appeal

Three Iraqi former detainees have accused US defence contractor of encouraging or directing their torture at the prison. The US Supreme Court on Monday put CACI International Inc a step closer to facing a trial in a lawsuit by three Iraqi former detainees who have accused employees of the defence contractor of directing their torture at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The justices declined to hear CACI’s appeal of a lower court’s 2019 decision that favored the three Iraqi men, whose suit against the Virginia-based company was filed in 2008 under a 1789 US law called the Alien Tort Statute that can be used to pursue legal claims over alleged human rights abuses. The US Supreme Court in 2013 narrowed the Alien Tort Statute’s reach, saying it was presumed to cover conduct in the United States, and that violations elsewhere must “touch and concern” US territory “with sufficient force” for plaintiffs to sue. The Supreme Court ruled on June 17 that another lawsuit filed under the Alien Tort Statute accusing Cargill Inc and a Nestle SA subsidiary of knowingly helping perpetuate slavery at Ivory Coast cocoa farms must be thrown out.