A jury in Virginia has found a US defense contractor liable for its role in the torture of three Iraqi civilians at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad 20 years ago during Washington's invasion into Iraq. The victims of the inhumane treatment were awarded a total of $42 million in damages.

In a landmark verdict on Tuesday, CACI Premier Technology Inc was found "liable for conspiring to torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" of Suhail Al Shimari, a middle school principal, Asaad Zubae, a fruit vendor, and Salah Al-Ejaili, a journalist, the Center of Constitutional Rights, a non-profit advocacy organization, said in a press release.

The statement said:

"Victims were held in the part of the Iraqi prison where the most inhumane abuses occurred. Along with hundreds of other Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib, they have suffered long-standing physical and emotional effects."

According to the lawsuit, CACI was hired by the US government to "provide interrogation services." It was not the only private US contractor implicated in the scandal; employees of Titan Corporation, which provided translation services at the site, were also accused of mistreatment.

As a result, CACI was ordered to pay each of the men $3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages.

The suit was first filed in 2008, but only went to trial this April in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, after a series of dismissal attempts by CACI. It also comes after a mistrial in May when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

The abuses at Abu Ghraib, which first came to light in 2004, came to epitomize human rights violations by the US military and CIA in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Media reports at the time showed graphic images of torture and humiliation of detainees, often held without any legal basis.

Some of the disturbing photos showed US personnel forming human pyramids out of naked captives and forcing them to perform mock sexual acts on each other. One notorious image showed a female soldier attaching a leash to the neck of a naked prisoner lying on the ground. Others were handcuffed to beds in humiliating positions, scared by dogs, or had their bodies smeared with feces, according to publicly available pictures.

The human rights violations were confirmed by several international organizations, sparking global outrage. As the evidence became impossible to deny, US President George W. Bush's administration acknowledged the abuses, but portrayed them as isolated incidents. Around a dozen US military personnel were convicted in related trials.
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