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Guard pleads guilty to abuse
19/05/2004 11:33 - (SA)
Baghdad - US prison guard Jeremy Sivits pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges relating to the abuse and humiliation of inmates inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail, at a court martial in Baghdad.
Sivits, 24, admitted conspiracy to maltreat detainees, maltreatment of detainees and dereliction of duty around November 8 last year in the first trial over the scandal that has rocked the US-led coalition and President Geroge W Bush's administration.
Sivits, who holds the rank of specialist, admitted leading a detainee to a pile of inmates on the floor and then took a photograph of them while another guard, Charles Graner, kneeled on them.
Sivits admitted an amended charge, saying that he was involved in a conspiracy to pile inmates on top of each other in a pyramid but accepted only that someone had taken a photograph.
Sivits sat next to his military lawyer during the hearing, and spoke only to confirm that he understood details of the proceedings. He faces up to a year in jail.
Three other soldiers suspected of being involved in the abuse appeared for a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday and will appear for another hearing on June 21.
Sergeant Javal Davis, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, and Graner, face courts martial able to give tougher sentences than those available in the Sivits case.
In sworn statements to army investigators leaked to the US press, Sivits had already indicated that he would admit to the charges.
The pictures of grinning US soldiers posing by a heap of naked Iraqi men revealed last month sparked worldwide outrage that has continued to dog the US administration.
Pictures much worse than those shown have not been released and claims have continued that the abuse was not just the work of rogue operators within the prison, but rather went much higher up the military and political chain of command.
- AFP
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