(VitalNews.org) – The first trial has been set for the 9/11 abuse allegedly encountered by detainees at a United States-run prison in Iraq called Abu Ghraib. The case has been brought on by three men who were said to have been held in the prison.
The trial comes almost two decades after the initial event that was captured where photos surfaced of the abuse that’s said to have taken place in the prison. Three Iraqi people, Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili, and As’ad Al-Zuba’e, were brought on the case after being detained at the prison.
These men have fought against CACI Premier Technology, the company that the United States hired to conduct interrogations. The company has been trying to get the case thrown out all these years, but its most recent appeal was rejected, leading to this current trial.
A senior attorney of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Katherine Gallagher, said, “This is a historic trial that we hope will deliver some measure of justice and healing for what President Bush rightly deemed disgraceful conduct that dishonored the United States and its values.”
The torture that these detainees described included things like being stripped naked, having their genitals beaten, being put in extremely hot water or extremely cold water, and electric shocks. They also dealt with starvation, being held in solitary confinement for a year, and being threatened by dogs.
The prisoners say that many had a similar experience and that they were never charged with a real crime. When their trials finally came, the judge let them go.
Al-Ejaili spoke about the psychological and physical damage that they endured but he found that many people didn’t believe him until the photos surfaced.
Al-Ejaili said, “Everybody knows that people were tortured at Abu Ghraib; this is a fact that cannot be covered up or hidden.” He continued. “But there are a lot of people who got away with it.”
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