The trial was a historic attempt at justice and marked the first time that victims of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified before civilian juries in the United States.
But on Thursday, the judge overseeing the Virginia civil case declared the trial invalid because the jury was unable to break the deadlock after eight days of deliberations.
The trial focused on the human rights violations committed in prison following the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
Reports of abuses first emerged in 2003 and peaked in 2004, when photos were released showing smiling U.S. captors standing next to naked prisoners in humiliating poses.
The images became a symbol of the consequences of Washington’s so-called “global war on terror.” The call for justice continues two decades later.
The Virginia trial centered on whether civilian interrogators provided to the U.S. Army by Virginia-based contractor CACI colluded with soldiers to abuse detainees in order to “soften” them up for questioning.
The trial began on April 15 and lawyers for the three Iraqi plaintiffs argued that CACI was liable for abuses, even though they could not prove that the contractor’s interrogators were the ones who directly caused the abuses.
Evidence presented to the Virginia court included statements from three former prisoners: Salah Hasan al-Ejaili, Suhail Al Shimari and Asa’ad al-Zuba’e. It was the first time a victim testified directly before a civilian US jury.
They reported being subjected to various forms of torture by U.S. military personnel and private contractors. The result was physical and psychological torment that has burdened her life over the past two decades.
Al-Ejaili, who was working as a journalist for Al Jazeera at the time of his arrest, described his statement as “a form of treatment or a cure.”
Prosecutors also presented reports and testimony from two retired U.S. Army generals who documented the abuse. They concluded that several CACI interrogators were complicit.
According to the reports, one of the civilian interrogators, Steven Stefanowicz, lied to investigators about his behavior in prison. They concluded that Stefanowicz likely instructed soldiers to mistreat detainees and that he used dogs during interrogations to intimidate people.
Stefanowicz denied involvement in the abuse in a videotaped statement.
However, evidence presented at trial showed that CACI officials had doubts about Stefanowicz’s ability to work as an interrogator – but that he was promoted to that position shortly after his arrival in Iraq due to manpower shortages.
CACI’s lawyers argued broadly that the company’s employees had extremely limited interactions with the three plaintiffs. They said any liability for the mistreatment rested with the U.S. government.
The abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light largely through an April 2004 CBS News report.
The image of a hooded prisoner holding electrical cords and standing on a box soon became emblematic of what human rights groups have described as widespread abuses by U.S. military personnel and private contractors after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A later report by the International Red Cross found that the vast majority of those detained were civilians with no ties to armed groups.
The countless abuses documented at the facility were in some cases “tantamount to torture,” the Red Cross said.
A total of eleven US soldiers were convicted by military courts in the following years, nine of whom were sentenced to prison.
However, it was difficult for the victims to take further legal action. U.S. law broadly grants the government immunity from war-related lawsuits.
In September, Human Rights Watch said the U.S. “appears to have failed to provide compensation or other reparations to Iraqis who suffered torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq two decades ago.” to grant”.
Former prisoners instead demanded compensation from contractors. In 2013, the Center for Constitutional Rights reached a $5 million settlement on behalf of its Iraqi clients against contractor Titan Corp.
The group also represented the three clients in the case against CACI. However, Thursday’s mistrial leaves open the possibility that the plaintiffs could file another lawsuit.
When asked if they would do so, Baher Azmy, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said they would.
“The work we put into this case is only a fraction of what they endured as survivors of the horrors of Abu Ghraib, and we want to honor their courage,” he said.
Al-Ejaili, one of the survivors of Abu Ghraib, also indicated in a press statement that he could continue to fight for justice.
“We may not have received justice in our just case today, but what is more important is that we made it to trial and raised our voices so that the world could hear directly from us,” he said. “This will not be the last word; What happened at Abu Ghraib is etched in our memories and will never be forgotten in history.”