Iraq prison abuse 'leader' jailed
A
US soldier found guilty of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad
has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Spc Charles Graner, regarded as the ringleader at the centre of the abuse scandal, also received a dishonourable discharge from the US army. The military jury passed sentence a day after Graner was convicted at a court martial in Fort Hood, Texas. Graner said he was only following orders to "soften" up prisoners. The prosecution, however, claimed Graner was the lead abuser and portrayed him as a sadistic bully. The former military policeman was pictured abusing inmates in a series of photographs which sparked outrage around the world. Before his sentencing, 36-year-old Graner took the stand for the first time to ask for leniency. He said he was only following orders and that he had complained about the treatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. Graner told the jury at the Fort Hood army base: "I did what I did. A lot of it was wrong, a lot of it was criminal. I did not enjoy it." But he said when he complained to superiors he was ordered to do what he was told. "We were not treating the prisoners the way we were supposed to, so I complained." Graner said he was told to obey military intelligence personnel, who gave orders at the prison. Earlier, Graner's parents made an emotional appeal to the jury to be lenient towards their son. Graner's mother, Irma, said her boy was "not the monster he is made out to be". The publication in early 2004 of dozens of photographs showing prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prompted global condemnation of US actions in Iraq. Naked pyramid: Following five days of proceedings, the jury of four officers and six enlisted soldiers took about five hours to reach their verdict. They found Graner guilty of multiple charges of assault, mistreatment of prisoners and conspiracy. Among the charges, Graner was accused of stacking naked detainees in a human pyramid, and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. An independent commission ruled in August 2004 that blame for the abuses lay almost totally with the soldiers who ran the jail, but faulted Defence Secretary Rumsfeld and colleagues for not providing adequate leadership to prevent the abuse.
The soldier accused of being the ringleader in the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail has been found guilty of mistreating detainees.
Charles Graner, 36, was convicted by a military jury in Texas after a four-day trial at which he was said to have assaulted prisoners for fun. The 36-year-old had pleaded not guilty to five charges, with the defence arguing that he was following orders. He now faces up to 15 years in a military prison. The 10-person jury took less than five hours to reach their verdict. Before it retired, prosecutor Capt Chris Graveline told the jury of a series of incidents of abuse, and showed them photographs and video taken inside the prison in November 2003. The publication in early 2004 of dozens of photographs showing prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prompted global condemnation of US actions in Iraq. The pictures led to accusations of prisoner abuse at a string of US detention centres in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Senior military and political figures, including US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were alleged to have known of the abuses. An independent commission ruled in August 2004 that blame for the abuses lay almost totally with the soldiers who ran the jail, but faulted Mr Rumsfeld and colleagues for not providing adequate leadership to prevent the abuse. Among other things, Specialist Graner was accused of stacking naked detainees in a human pyramid, and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. The court was told that he punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out and beat an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.
