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Court-martial date for England
27/09/2004 17:39 - (SA)
Fort Bragg - Lynndie England will be court-martialled in January on charges stemming from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, the army announced on Monday.
A motions hearing is scheduled for December 1-3, with the trial scheduled for January 17-28, according to Lieutenant-General John Vines.
England, a 21-year-old reservist stationed at Fort Bragg who is seen in some of the most notorious photos taken at the prison, was arraigned on Friday, and did not enter a plea.
If convicted of all 19 counts, she could receive up to 38 years in jail, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.
Hearing officer Denise Arn had recommended that England be court-martialed on 17 counts of abuse and indecent acts. In deciding on a court-martial, Vines reinstated two counts that Arn had recommended be dropped.
Arn's recommendations, dated September 6, were based on five days of testimony from 27 witnesses in August during what is known as an Article 32 proceeding, the equivalent of a civilian grand jury.
Arn suggested in her report that England was largely led astray by older soldiers in her unit, particularly her ex-boyfriend, Charles Graner jun.
Attorneys say Graner is the father of the child England expects to deliver in October.
England is one of seven members of her company charged in connection with abuse that took place at Abu Ghraib prison late last year. Photographs of England posing with nude men stacked in a pyramid and holding a naked detainee by a leash made England a focal point of the scandal.
Her attorneys argued in the hearing that she posed for the pictures on orders from higher-ups to "soften up" Iraqi prisoners. Her lawyers sought unsuccessfully to call such high-level witnesses as vice-president Dick Cheney and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Military prosecutors portrayed the abuse as the work of a renegade band of reservists.
- AP
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