The US military judge hearing charges of prisoner abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison today rejected a defence request for Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to submit to an interview, but said he would reconsider if the defence could show a Rumsfeld link to the case.

One of the US Army reservists charged with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison admitted at a pre-trial hearing today that he initially lied to a military investigator by saying he did not take part in the maltreatment.

DEFENCE lawyers for soldiers on trial in the Iraqi prisoner abuse case won permission yesterday to question two top American generals, and the military judge ordered that the Abu Ghraib prison not be torn down because it is a crime scene.

A lawyer for one of three soldiers accused in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal asked a military judge today to order a new hearing because the turmoil of Iraq prevented him from being able to question witnesses.

A pre-trial hearing over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal began in Baghdad today.