Jury returns split verdict in Abu Ghraib case

A military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, today acquitted a US Army officer of failing to control US soldiers accused of abusing detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, but it found him guilty of disobeying an order.

Lt Col Steven Jordan was the only officer and the last of 12 defendants to go to trial in the Abu Ghraib 2003 scandal that embarrassed the Pentagon and shocked the Muslim world.

The allegations of detainee abuse at the US-run prison first came to light with the release of photos of US soldiers smiling while detainees, often naked, were held in painful and humiliating positions at the prison.

Jordan, 51, never appeared in the inflammatory photos, but he was accused of fostering a climate conducive to abuse.