Emad al-Janabi

Emad Khudhayir Shahuth al-Janabi (born c. 1965) was an Iraqi blacksmith detained in Abu Ghraib prison where he alleges he was abused by American military personnel and defense contractors.

Imprisonment

Al-Janabi claimed that in the September following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, his home was raided at 2:00 a.m. by "persons dressed in American military uniforms and civilian clothing" who beat him and his family. Al-Janabi was told he would face execution with his brother and nephew and was then interned in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Al-Janabi later described that while detained he was punched, kicked, stripped, chained, hung upside down from a bedframe, kept naked and handcuffed in his cell, and repeatedly deprived of food and sleep. He said that after being discovered by the International Committee of the Red Cross during a surprise inspection in October, he was thereafter hidden with contractor help from future inspections as a "ghost detainee". CACI had provided interrogators to Abu Ghraib and all interpreters were employees of Titan Corporation.

Al-Janabi was seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Al-Janabi was represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) which took the case to establish that "Private military contractors can’t act with impunity outside the law" and have "violated the Geneva Conventions, the Army Field Manual, and the laws of the United States". There remains some debate over which legal system, if any, had jurisdiction over American contractors acting overseas.