Defence contractor pays $7m to former Abu Ghraib inmates

WASHINGTON (AP) - A defence contractor whose subsidiary was accused in a lawsuit of conspiring to torture detainees at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has paid US$5.28 million (S$7.12 million) to 71 former inmates held there and at other United States-run detention sites between 2003 and 2007.

The settlement in the case involving Engility Holdings of Chantilly, Virginia, marks the first successful effort by lawyers for former prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other detention centres to collect money from a US defence contractor in lawsuits alleging torture. Another contractor, CACI, is expected to go to trial over similar allegations this summer.

The payments were disclosed in a document that Engility filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission two months ago but which has gone essentially unnoticed.

The defendant in the lawsuit, L-3 Services, now an Engility subsidiary, provided translators to the US military in Iraq. In 2006, L-3 Services had more than 6,000 translators in Iraq under a US$450 million-a-year contract, an L-3 executive told an investors conference at the time.