WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A Virginia federal court ruled Wednesday that four former Abu Ghraib detainees who were tortured and later released without charge can sue U.S. military contractor CACI International Inc. (NYSE: CAI), according to their U.S. legal team.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, of Alexandria, Va., denied CACI's motion to dismiss the detainees' claims which allege multiple violations of U.S. law, including torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy.

CACI sought immunity against the lawsuits and claimed that the actions of its contract interrogators at Abu Ghraib were beyond judicial review. Court martial and other testimony from the soldiers convicted of abuse link the company personnel to the abuse.

In a ruling important to accountability for government contractors in Iraq, the Court ruled Wednesday that '[t]he fact that CACI's business involves conducting interrogations on the government's behalf is incidental; courts can and do entertain civil suits against government contractors for the manner in which they carry out government business. CACI conveniently ignores the long line of cases where private plaintiffs were allowed to bring tort actions for wartime injuries.'

The Court also rejected CACI's effort to shield itself from accountability by invoking the political question doctrine. The Court found 'the policy is clear: what happened at Abu Ghraib was wrong.' The Court reasoned 'While it is true that the events at Abu Ghraib pose an embarrassment to this country, it is the misconduct alleged and not the litigation surrounding that misconduct that creates the embarrassment. This Court finds that the only potential for embarrassment would be if the Court declined to hear these claims on political questions grounds. Consequently, the Court holds that Plaintiffs' claims pose no political question and are therefore justiciable.'

The plaintiffs are Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari, Taha Yaseen Arraq Rashid, Sa'ad Hamza Hantoosh AI-Zuba'e and Salah Hasan Usaif Jasim Al-Ejaili - all of whom are Iraqi citizens who were released from Abu Ghraib between 2004 and 2008 without being charged with any crime.

The former detainees are represented by attorneys Susan L. Burke, William T. O'Neil and William F.