NEW YORK - A federal judge has rejected a series of arguments by lawyers for the private military contractor Blackwater who were seeking to dismiss five war crimes cases brought by Iraqi victims against the company and its owner, Erik Prince, Democracy Now! reported.
At the same time, the judge ruled that lawyers for the Iraqi plaintiffs need to amend and re-file their cases to provide more specific details on the alleged crimes before a decision can be made on whether the lawsuits will proceed.
Susan Burke, the lead attorney for the Iraqi victims, told The Nation magazine she was “very pleased with the ruling.” While Blackwater’s spokesperson, Stacy DeLuke said, quote, “We are confident that [the plaintiffs] will not be able to meet the high standard specified in [the judge’s] opinion.”
Jeremy Scahill, award-winning investigative journalist, and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army told Democracy Now! that reports of the ruling have been misrepresented in the mainstream media.
"What you see in this document is that it’s a very well-thought-out legal argument by Judge Ellis, where he’s essentially saying to Blackwater, 'Your argument that you can’t be sued as a private company under the Alien Tort Statute is false. Your argument that private individuals or companies cannot commit war crimes is false',” explained Scahill.
Lawyers for the private military contractor Blackwater were seeking to dismiss five war crimes cases brought by Iraqi victims against the company and its owner, Erik Prince.
"These are very high-stakes cases. Blackwater is fighting passionately to have them thrown out. They’ve made arguments that they, as a company, can’t be sued, that it would violate the rights of the President of United States to make battlefield decisions, and if Blackwater was prosecuted, that would infringe upon the President’s rights," said Scahill.
"They’ve said that they, as a company, can’t be sued for war crimes, because war crimes can only be committed by state actors or nations. And what we saw here is that this conservative Judge Ellis said to Blackwater, 'No, none of that is valid',” he added.
However, the judge made it more difficult for plaintiffs to have their cases moved to the trial phase, setting the bar much higher to proceed to trial.
"What the judge said to Susan Burke and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the lawyers representing these Iraqis, 'You need to re-file your cases with more evidence, and then we’ll take it from there',” said Scahill.
"This was actually a pretty significant defeat for Blackwater and a victory not only for the Iraqis in this case, but also for those lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights that have spent decades trying to apply US laws to crimes committed abroad," he added.
Blair blasts Britons over Iraq war