Kathmandu, January 4
A US appeals court has ruled in favour of an American company in a legal battle over the the 2004 kidnapping and subsequent murder by Iraqi extremists of 12 Nepali men working for a subcontractor at a US military base. The court, by a majority vote, said the case related to foreign nationals at a foreign country is beyond the jurisdiction of the US legal system.
According to Reuters, KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root) was granted reprieve by a 2-1 vote as the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans dismissed civil claims by surviving family members, and a Nepali worker, who was not captured, against the engineering firm and military contractor. By doing so, the judges upheld a lower court judge’s decision in 2014.
Reuters reported, “In their 2008 lawsuit, the plaintiffs accused Houston-based KBR and its Jordanian subcontractor Daoud & Partners of recruiting victims in Nepal by promising them jobs at a luxury hotel in Amman, only to send them to Iraq instead. The surviving worker said he was forced to work at the Al Asad base north of Ramadi, Iraq, for 15 months before getting his passport back.” One of the judges in the hearing rejected claims that KBR’s alleged misconduct could be deemed “domestic” under the federal Alien Tort Statute, which is often invoked in human rights cases, because Al Asad fell under US control, KBR conducted financial transactions through US banks, and US-based workers may have known of alleged abuses. “All the conduct comprising the alleged international law violations occurred in a foreign country,” wrote judge Prado, who also rejected claims under a federal anti-trafficking law.
However, Circuit Judge James Graves dissented. He found “much to support” the conclusion that claims over whether KBR engaged in human trafficking to fulfill its US government contract to provide labour at Al Asad “touch and concern” the United States.
Twelve Nepalis were killed by their captors in Iraq on August 30, 2004. The group, Army of Ansar al-Sunna, said the men were being punished for helping the US, and it had “carried out the sentence of God” against them.
