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2 marines guilty of jail abuse
03/06/2004 20:51 - (SA)
Harrisburg - Two United States marines have pleaded guilty to giving electric shocks to an Iraqi prisoner they were guarding at a temporary detention centre south of Baghdad in early April, months after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse occurred, military officials said.
Andrew J Sting and Jeremiah J Trefney, both 19, entered their pleas at a May 14 court-martial in Iraq, according to a statement by the 1st Marine expeditionary force in Iraq.
Lieutenant Nathan Braden, a marine spokesperson at Camp Pendleton, California, released the statement on Thursday.
Sting and Trefney were infantrymen with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine regiment, which is attached to the 1st Marine division.
According to the statement, Sting, Trefney and two other marines decided to shock a detainee at Mahmudiya Prison, a temporary holding facility, to discipline him for throwing rubbish outside his cell and speaking loudly.
The marines attached wires to a power convertor, which was used to shock the detainee with 110 volts of electricity as he returned from a trip to the bathroom, said the statement.
Sting pleaded guilty to charges of assault, cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty and conspiracy to assault.
He was sentenced to a year in prison, a reduction of rank, forfeiture of pay and a bad-conduct discharge.
Trefney pleaded guilty to cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, false official statement, violating a lawful order and conspiracy to commit assault.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison, reduction of rank, forfeiture of all pay, and will receive a bad-conduct discharge.
Pleaded guilty to four abuse charges
The two other Marines, who were not identified, are awaiting court action.
The pleas by Trefney and Sting came five days before the highly publicised court-martial hearing for Jeremy C Sivits in the Abu Ghraib Prison abuse scandal.
Sivits, 24, pleaded guilty to four counts of abuse, the first defendant to go on trial in the Abu Ghraib case.
Six other reservists are charged with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, which occurred between October 2003 and January 2004.
The Mahmudiya Prison held about 300 detainees and had been guarded since late March by active-duty marines and reservists, said officials.
- AP
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