"Contractor Must Face Claims Over Abu Ghraib Abuse", 26 Jun 2018

A U.S. defense contractor who allegedly oversaw torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq can’t rely on a recent Supreme Court ruling to dismiss abuse claims brought against them by former prisoners, a federal judge in Virginia said Monday...In 2008, Al Shimari and the other prisoners sued CACI Premier Technology, a linguistic services company hired by the U.S. military during the U.S. i...Under the Alien Tort Statute, the men claimed the contractor was directly liable for the abuse at Abu Ghraib but in February, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema disagreed.  Brinkema found the contractor was not directly liable for the alleged torture...Instead, CACI could be held liable for conspiracy to abuse the prisoners, the judge found...The contractor pushed back, arguing Brinkema did not have the jurisdiction to hear Al Shimari’s conspiracy claims thanks to decision issued by the Supreme Court in April, Jesner v. Arab Bank PLC...But Jesner doesn’t apply here, Brinkema wrote Monday...because here, the matter “involves foreign plaintiffs suing an American corporate defendant...”...And unlike Jesner, neither the U.S. nor any foreign government has expressed objection to the suit...A representative of  CACI Premier Technology did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.