JURIST - Paper Chase: Blackwater settles last lawsuit in 2007 Baghdad shooting incident

[JURIST] Blackwater [JURIST news archive], now known as Academi [corporate website], reached a confidential settlement agreement Saturday with survivors and families of victims in a 2007 shooting incident [JURIST report] in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A subsequent FBI [official website] investigation revealed that 14 of the deaths were unjustified acts of excessive force [NYT report]. A federal judge ruled last year that the lawsuit could proceed [JURIST report] in North Carolina state court, saying that nonresidents lack the right to sue in federal court for injuries sustained outside of the country but that federal courts are obligated to remand such cases to the state level, where North Carolina law permits such suits. Lawyers for the victims confirmed the settlement [AP Report], and Academi said the settlement would allow the company to move forward while providing compensation to the victims and allowing closure for the losses they suffered. This settlement closes the last lawsuit against the company for the 2007 incident.

Two ex-Blackwater contractors were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison [JURIST reports] last year for their role in the shooting deaths of two Afghan nationals and the wounding of a third. In April a federal grand jury indicted five former Blackwater executives [JURIST report] on charges of weapons violations and lying to investigators. In 2010 the Iraqi government ordered 250 former Blackwater employees to leave Iraq in reaction to the dismissal of criminal charges [JURIST reports] against the guards involved in the 2007 shooting incident. The same month, the Department of Justice [official website] also opened an investigation [JURIST report] into whether Blackwater bribed the Iraqi government to be permitted to continue operating in Iraq following the 2007 shootings. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts expired and were not renewed.