SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A group of major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies on Thursday asked a U.S. appeals court to scrap its decision reviving a lawsuit that seeks to hold them liable for allegedly helping to fund acts of terrorism in Iraq against American service members.
In court filings, lawyers for the companies told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that a panel decision in January was “sweeping” and went beyond the scope of the law, according to Reuters.
The companies include AstraZeneca UK Limited, Pfizer Inc, GE Healthcare USA Holding, Johnson & Johnson and Hoffman-La Roche.
The lawsuit revived by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was brought by family members of victims of attacks in Iraq by the Mahdi group. A federal trial judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2020.
The plaintiffs contend that the militia group Jaysh al-Mahdi, sponsored by the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah, controlled Iraq’s health ministry and that the 21 defendant U.S. and European medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies made corrupt payments to obtain medical-supply contracts.
The companies want the full 11-judge D.C. Circuit to review a panel decision that they said threatened to more broadly expose companies and organizations to liability for work in certain parts of the world.
The companies said in a joint statement on Friday that they “are not responsible in any way for the tragic events that were caused and carried out by Iraqi militia groups.”
