US soldier jailed for 8 years
2004-10-21 17:15
Baghdad - US staff sergeant Ivan Frederick was sentenced by a military judge on Thursday to eight years in prison and a dishonourable discharge from the army for abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.
Frederick, the highest-ranking official to be tried so far in the prison abuse scandal, had pleaded guilty to a range of five charges from making hooded inmates masturbate to punching them in the chest.
Judge Colonel James Pohl also demoted the 38-year-old before the discharge and docked his pay, but an original sentence of 10 years was reduced due to a plea bargain.
Frederick was the first of three military police due to appear for a court martial in Baghdad this week for their alleged part in the scandal in which pictures of grinning US soldiers posing by a heap of naked Iraqi men and other abuses at Abu Ghraib sparked worldwide outrage earlier this year.
His two-day trial painted a bleak picture of the disorder and abuse at the prison, with Frederick and other witnesses alleging that they were acting under the authority of others up the US chain of command to interrogate prisoners.
The reservist's defence lawyer argued that it was the collective fault of the military for setting the conditions for the abuse to take place and failing to train Frederick properly.
"Punish him yes. But please try to understand the defence's point-of-view that there is corporate responsibility," he said in court. "We discovered that he has no abhorrent tendencies."
The army prosecutor argued that it was a simple case of right and wrong.
"He's an adult capable of making decisions," said Major Michael Holley. "How much training do you need to learn that it's wrong to force a man to masturbate?"
- AFP