Federal judge rules Iraq 'gang-rape victim' can seek trial in US
Time of London
An American woman who claims that she was gang-raped by coworkers in Baghdad while employed by Halliburton/KBR, a defence contractor, can take her case to trial, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision has opened the door for other American women who have reported sexual assaults in similar circumstances to challenge clauses in their employment contracts restricting such claims to private arbitration and keeping them out of court.
It comes at a time when the US Congress is examining whether the Government is adequately protecting contractors who allege sexual assault.
In Britain, MPs are investigating allegations of sexual harassment and abuse at the Embassy in Baghdad. The allegations also concern employees of KBR, which was hired to maintain the Embassy’s premises. The Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has written to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ask for a full explanation.
The ruling in America centres on the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a 23-year-old Texan who alleges she was drugged and raped in her mixed sleeping quarters by fellow contract workers while working in technical support for KBR at Camp Hope in July 2005. “I woke up naked and I knew something really wrong had happened to me,” Ms Jones told The Times. “I threw on my robe and I went to the restroom. I was bleeding between my legs.”
After she reported the alleged assault, she said she was confined to a shipping container and told that if she left Iraq to seek medical attention she would not have a job on her return.
(Continued here.)
An American woman who claims that she was gang-raped by coworkers in Baghdad while employed by Halliburton/KBR, a defence contractor, can take her case to trial, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision has opened the door for other American women who have reported sexual assaults in similar circumstances to challenge clauses in their employment contracts restricting such claims to private arbitration and keeping them out of court.
It comes at a time when the US Congress is examining whether the Government is adequately protecting contractors who allege sexual assault.
In Britain, MPs are investigating allegations of sexual harassment and abuse at the Embassy in Baghdad. The allegations also concern employees of KBR, which was hired to maintain the Embassy’s premises. The Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has written to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ask for a full explanation.
The ruling in America centres on the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a 23-year-old Texan who alleges she was drugged and raped in her mixed sleeping quarters by fellow contract workers while working in technical support for KBR at Camp Hope in July 2005. “I woke up naked and I knew something really wrong had happened to me,” Ms Jones told The Times. “I threw on my robe and I went to the restroom. I was bleeding between my legs.”
After she reported the alleged assault, she said she was confined to a shipping container and told that if she left Iraq to seek medical attention she would not have a job on her return.
(Continued here.)
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