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Abuse: Soldier found guilty
19/05/2004 13:37 - (SA)
Baghdad - US army privat Jeremy C Sivits pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of abuse in the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
The military court then found Sivits guilty of all charges. Under military law, if the defendant pleads guilty, they must prove to the court they are guilty and the court then formally renders a finding.
Sivits, at times struggling to hold back tears, was charged with mistreating detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse, cruelty and forcing a prisoner "to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers".
Sivits took pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated at Abu Ghraib. He could face up to one year in jail, reduction in rank, loss of pay and a bad conduct discharge.
Captain Scott Dunn, Sivits' lawyer, entered the plea on his behalf and expressed concern about the huge media coverage of the trial, asking "can you make a fair decision?"
The judge, Colonel James Pohl, replied: "Just because it's on TV, it doesn't mean it's true."
In an emotional description of the events that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison on the evening of November 8, Sivits said he was asked by Staff Sergeant Ivan L Frederick to accompany him to the prison facility. Sivits struggled to describe the events, pausing while telling the judge what happened.
He said he was on detail outside Abu Ghraib and had done some maintenance work on generators when Frederick asked him to accompany him to the prison. Sivits took a detainee with him and when he arrived at the scene where the crimes took place, there were seven other detainees.
Stepped on their hands
"I heard Corporal Graner yelling in Arabic at the detainees," he said. "I saw some of the detainees lying on the floor with sandbags over their heads.
"Sergeant Javal Davis, 26, and another soldier, Private Lynndie England, 21, were stamping on their toes and hands.
"Graner punched the detainee in the head or temple area," Sivits said. "I said: 'I think you might have knocked him out.'"
Sivits also said: "Graner complained that he had injured his hand and said, 'Damn, that hurt.'"
Sivits said all prisoners were stripped and forced to form a human pyramid.
Sivits quoted one of the other six accused soldiers, whom he did not identify, as saying guards were "told to keep doing what they were doing by military intelligence". He added, however, that he did not believe the soldier.
Dunn, the defence lawyer, told the judge that Sivits had reached a pre-trial agreement with the prosecution, presumably to testify against others accused in the case.
- AP
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