Army dog-handler jailed for Abu Ghraib abuse

A US Army dog-handler was sentenced to six months behind bars for using his snarling animal to torment prisoners at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib jail.

Sergeant Michael Smith, 24, was reduced to the rank of private, will forfeit $750 (€622) a month of his pay for three months and will receive a bad-conduct discharge from the army after his release from prison, the court in Fort Meade, Maryland ruled.

The sentence came a day after a military jury convicted Smith. He could have been jailed for up to eight and a half years.

Smith was sentenced on five charges, including maltreatment of prisoners, conspiring with another dog-handler in a contest to try to frighten detainees into soiling themselves, and directing his dog to lick peanut butter off other soldiers’ bodies.

Prosecutors said he let his unmuzzled black Belgian shepherd bark and lunge at cowering Iraqis for his own amusement. The defence argued that Smith believed he was following orders to soften up prisoners for interrogation.

Smith appeared unrepentant when he addressed the jury yesterday, shortly after he was convicted.

“Soldiers are not supposed to be soft and cuddly,” he said.

Smith said he wished he had received his orders in writing. Soldiers who did not “end up in a heap of trouble”, he said.

In closing arguments, prosecutors urged the military panel of four officers and three senior non-commissioned officers to send Smith to prison for at least three years, followed by a bad-conduct discharge.

Major Matthew Miller, a prosecution lawyer, said such a sentence would send a message that such actions would not be tolerated.

But the defence said Smith should serve no jail time and instead be returned to his family and his unit. Captain Scott Rolle said that while Smith made mistakes at Abu Ghraib, he was also “a hero”, decorated for saving the lives of other US soldiers during a mortar attack.

Nine other soldiers have been convicted of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, in many cases by forcing them to assume painful positions and humiliate themselves sexually while being photographed.

Former corporal Charles Graner received the longest sentence: 10 years in prison.

Lynndie England, a 23-year-old reservist photographed giving a thumbs-up in front of naked prisoners, is serving three years.