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Lynndie England admits guilt
02/05/2005 17:19 - (SA)
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| Lynndie England arrives for her court hearing at Fort Hood, Texas.
(LM Otero, AP)
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Fort Hood - Lynddie England, the US private who achieved notoriety by being photographed holding a leash on a naked Iraqi inmate at the Abu Ghraib prison, pleaded guilty on Monday at the start her court martial on abuse charges.
The 22-year-old private, who reached a plea bargain with military prosecutors, asked for the sentence to be decided by a panel of military jurors.
Wearing a full dress uniform, England made no comment as she walked into the court. During the hearing she said nothing but "yes sir" in response to the judge's questions.
England's lawyer, Rick Hernandez, asked the military judge, Colonel James Pohl, to recuse himself because he had presided over all the other Abu Ghraib abuse cases. Hernandez said this "gives the appearance of bias".
Pohl became increasingly frustrated under questioning from the defence and at one stage told Hernandez that in order to stand down: "I'd have to believe there was an appearance of impropriety from two colonels and two three-star generals."
The judge rejected the demand and England went on to make her plea.
The proposed punishment agreed with prosecutors in her plea bargain will remain secret until after the military jury decides the sentence it believes she should face. England will then receive the lesser of the two sentences.
In charges filed in February, England was accused of posing for a number of photographs in which prisoners were abused.
In one, she held a strap tied around a naked detainee's neck as he crawled on the ground.
In another, she pointed to the word "rapeist" (sic) written on the exposed buttocks of a prisoner. She also posed with naked prisoners who formed a human pyramid and pointed at the "naked genital area" of a prisoner sitting on the back of another naked detainee.
Two other photographs depicted sexual activities. In one, England posed with detainees who had been forced to masturbate. In another, England engaged in fellatio with Charles Graner, the father of her newborn baby, as Ivan Frederick took pictures.
Graner, who is serving a 10-year jail term for beating and sexually humiliating prisoners, is reported to have married another soldier charged in the scandal, Megan Ambuhl. Ambuhl pleaded guilty and received a dishonourable discharge.
- AFP
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