Several victims of a 2007 shooting involving American private security
guards employed by a firm formerly known as Blackwater claimed Sunday
they were coerced into reaching settlements and demanded the Iraqi
government intervene to have the agreements nullified.
The Iraqis said they were pressured by their own
attorneys into accepting what they now believe are inadequate
settlements because they were told the company was about to file
bankruptcy, that its chairman was going to be arrested and that the
U.S. government was about to confiscate all of its assets. This would
be their last chance to get any compensation, the victims said they
were told.
When criminal charges against the guards were dismissed by a U.S. federal judge on
“We signed the papers to accept a settlement because
we had psychological pressure and some of us were threatened,” Mahdi
Abdul Khodr, 45, told reporters Sunday at
parliament. He led a delegation comprising representatives of nine of
the victims’ families who petitioned Iraqi officials to exert pressure
on the U.S. government to nullify the settlements.
as well as a string of other incidents in which Blackwater guards are
alleged to have killed or injured Iraqis. Altogether, the suits covered
45 injured people and the families of 19 slain Iraqis who have all
signed settlement agreements, according to court documents.
numerous incidents in which Blackwater contractors are alleged to have
fired on civilians, inflaming anti-American sentiments and straining
relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. At least 14 civilians
were killed and more than 20 injured when the guards opened fire on the
busy square.
The charges against five Blackwater guards accused
in the shooting were thrown out on the grounds the prosecution had
wrongly used statements they provided under immunity to
The settlements were reached last fall in meetings at
where the claimants say they were required to sign a paper, written in
English, and make a videotaped testimony in Arabic, both relinquishing
all future claims against Blackwater. Though
the civil suits, said the company was not been present at any of the
meetings and “never stated to any victims or their counsel that it
would be filing for bankruptcy.”
All of the company’s contacts with the victims were through the plaintiffs’ own lawyers, he said.
refused to comment Sunday, citing confidentiality agreements included
as part of the settlement. She withdrew the civil suits against the
company last week.
After meeting with lawmakers, three members of the
delegation described in separate interviews how they were summoned to
the hotel and urged by their lawyers to accept the payouts. Burke was
not at the meetings.
that three Iraqi lawyers and one American attorney spent three hours
trying to convince her to accept the settlement. She would not disclose
the amount, but said it did not exceed the reported figures.
“At the beginning I refused,” said Sharif. “They
spent three hours sitting with us and beseeching us to sign. They
planted despair in our hearts, saying they are going to announce
bankruptcy and the government is going to confiscate all their assets
and you will not get any amount at all if you do not sign”
“I feel I was deceived by them,” she said. “They
told me the company is going to go bankrupt and this was my last
chance. But now I wonder, how could this happen to such a big company?”
Khodr, who headed the delegation, lost his left eye in the shooting and spent three months in hospital, said he accepted a
settlement because, he said, “they told me Blackwater was about to go
into bankruptcy, that their manager will be sent to prison and the
government will confiscate all their assets.”
“I signed because I had financial difficulties and I needed the money,” said
He also lost an eye, walks with difficulty because of injuries to his
leg and hasn’t worked since the shooting. “We don’t know English and we
don’t know legal things. But now I think about it, it is not the amount
I deserved.”
Not all those who settled are unhappy.
an attorney who was injured in his back, shoulder and arm, said in a
telephone interview Sunday he received significantly more than the
amounts being reported, and that he is satisfied. Because he is a
lawyer, he said, “I know how to negotiate.”
An October ruling filed by a federal judge in the suits filed in
suggests the Iraqis may not have been successful had they persisted.
The ruling said the plaintiffs had not demonstrated the company could
be sued in federal courts, but suggested they refile, using different
arguments. That could have dragged the case out for several years,
legal experts say.
“These lawsuits would not have been a piece of cake,” said
Though there have been no published reports suggesting
is in danger of bankruptcy, it is also highly unlikely any court would
dismiss the out-of-court settlements without proof of coercion or
fraud, especially as the plaintiffs own lawyers were present when they
signed, said
He described the amounts involved in the settlements
as “disappointing,” but added: “I was fairly pessimistic about the
likelihood of ever achieving justice in this case.”
A separate civil suit filed by several other victims of the
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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