The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Defense Services Company (CACI International) to a lawsuit in which 3 former Iraqi detainees accused its employees of supervising their torture at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, bringing the case closer to trial.

The judges refused to consider the company’s appeal against a lower court ruling in 2019 in favor of the three Iraqis who brought their case against the Virginia-based company in 2008 under a US law issued in 1789 that allows litigation over allegations of human rights violations.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia, in 2019 refused to allow the company to directly appeal an earlier ruling by a federal judge that it was illegal to immunize it from prosecution for its work for the US government.

The company said it should be protected under a different, more robust legal provision known as derived sovereign immunity, which can be invoked to protect government contractors from liability under certain circumstances.

The harsh treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison by US forces during the Iraq war turned into a scandal during the administration of former President George W. Bush after images of torture spread in 2004. Some detainees said that they were subjected to physical and sexual torture, including electric shocks and the illusion of execution.

The three prosecutors, Suhail al-Shammari, Salah al-Ajili, and Asa’ad al-Zoba’i, 3 civilians were arrested in Abu Ghraib and eventually released without charges. The company says the case is baseless.

Reuters