Join CCR Legal Director Baher Azmy and co-counsel Jeena Shah for a discussion of our Al Shimari case and CCR’s history challenging corporate immunity and seeking justice for torture. Discussion will be followed by Q&A. Doors open at 6:00pm, program begins at 6:45pm. Register here.

In April 2004, shocking photographs depicting the humiliation and torture of prisoners in the early days of the Iraq war were made public. Images of men in hoods, forced to stand naked and attached to dog leashes and electrical wires have since become emblematic of Abu Ghraib prison and iconic of broader U.S. torture practices in the post 9/11 era.

That same year, U.S. military investigators determined that employees of private military contractor CACI Premier Technology, Inc. (CACI) participated in “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. However, CACI maintains that, as a private corporation, it should receive immunity for grave human rights violations. A decade on, it’s unfathomable that few have been held accountable for such atrocities.

But there’s still hope.

In 2008, CCR filed Al Shimari v. CACI, on behalf of four former Iraqi prisoners, over CACI's role in our clients’ torture. Despite repeated attempts by CACI to have the case dismissed, we’ve fought to keep it alive in federal court, and preserved the use of CCR’s pioneering human rights litigation strategy, through the Alien Tort Statute, to challenge grave human rights abuses abroad.

But the question still remains: will anyone pay for Abu Ghraib?

What: Short discussion, followed by Q&A, and a chance to mix and mingle.

When: Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Doors open at 6pm, program begins at 6:45pm.

Where: Von Bar, 3 Bleecker Street, near Bowery. B/D/F/M to Broadway-Lafayette or 6 to Bleecker

RSVP: not required, but recommended. Register here.

Note: Cash bar with happy hour specials. This venue has stairs.