Prison abuse scandal: Soldier goes on trial

A US soldier who allegedly took pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison was going on trial today.

Specialist Jeremy Sivits is the first of seven soldiers to face courts martial for offences that US President George Bush called a “stain” on America’s honour.

Sivits, a member of the Army Reserves’ 372nd Military Police Company, is charged with maltreatment of detainees and failure to protect detainees from maltreatment. He could face up to one year in jail, reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and a bad conduct discharge.

Before his trial begins, three other reservists from the same military police unit – Staff Sgt Ivan Fredericks, Sgt Javal Davis, and Spc Charles Graner – are to appear on more serious charges, including physical assaults on prisoners.

Sivits is believed to have co-operated with prosecutors by providing accounts of abuse by fellow soldiers between October and January.

The US military hopes allowing news coverage of the proceedings at the Baghdad Convention Centre will demonstrate American resolve to determine who was responsible for the abuse and punish the guilty.

Nine Arab newspapers and the prominent Arab television networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are among 34 news organisations allowed to have reporters in the courtroom. No audio or TV recordings will be allowed in the courtroom, however.

The scandal broke last month with the broadcast and publication of pictures of prisoners suffering sexual humiliation and other brutality at the hands of American MPs serving as guards at Abu Ghraib.

The pictures generated a wave of international outrage and called into question the Bush administration’s moral standing in its campaign to bring democracy to Iraq.

One photo showed a naked, hooded prisoner on a box with wires fastened to his hands and genitals. According to Fredericks’ indictment, the detainee had been told he would be electrocuted if he touched the ground.

Another picture showed a female MP holding a leash attached to the neck of a naked prisoner on the floor.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which inspects prisons in Iraq and elsewhere, issued a report on conditions at Abu Ghraib that said some acts against detainees were “tantamount to torture.”

It said the abuse included brutality, forcing people to wear hoods, humiliation and threats of execution.

The report also said intelligence officers of the US-led coalition had told Red Cross officials that up to 90% of Iraqi detainees had been arrested by mistake.

A day before Sivits’ court martial, relatives of those still held at Abu Ghraib said the only suitable punishment for the soldiers charged in the case would be death.

“If they actually committed such offences, they should be executed,” Odai Ibrahim, 55, said while waiting in a line with hundreds of other people to visit relatives held at the grim, Saddam Hussein-era prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad.