Former detainees of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are suing U.S. contractors in four states for alleged torture that occurred in 2003 and 2004.

Three of the complaints were filed in U.S. district courts in Seattle, Greenbelt, Md., and Columbus, Ohio, where three of the four defendants reside. The fourth was filed in Detroit, where contractor L-3 Communications recruited heavily for translators, according to that complaint.

The lawsuits on behalf of three Iraqis and a Jordanian allege that those arrested and taken to the prison were subjected to forced nudity, electrical shocks, mock executions and other inhumane treatment. They seek payments high enough to compensate the detainees for their injuries, and to deter contractors from such conduct in the future.

The torture allegedly happened at the hands of defence contractors CACI International of Arlington, Va., and New York-based L-3 Communications, formerly Titan Corp.

"These innocent men were senselessly tortured by U.S. companies that profited from their misery," said lead lawyer Susan L. Burke of the Philadelphia law firm Burke O'Neil. "These men came to U.S. courts because our laws, as they have for generations, allow their claims to be heard here."

Allegations of abuse at the Baghdad prison first erupted in 2004 with the release of pictures of grinning U.S. soldiers posing with detainees, some naked, being held on leashes or in painful and sexually humiliating positions. Eleven U.S. soldiers were convicted and five others disciplined in the scandal.

The lawsuits repeat "baseless allegations" made more than four years ago in another case brought by the same lawyers, CACI spokeswoman Jody Brown said in a statement.

"In the years that have passed since these claims first surfaced, nothing has changed to give any merit to unfounded and unsubstantiated claims," the statement read. "These generic allegations of abuse, coupled with imaginary claims of conspiracy, remain unconnected to any CACI personnel."

L-3 didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Three of the lawsuits also named individual employees of those companies as defendants.