WASHINGTON (Agencies)
The only U.S. officer tried over the abuse scandal at Baghdad's infamous Abu Ghraib prison was cleared Tuesday of mistreating prisoners there, but found guilty of disobeying an order not to discuss an investigation into the case.
Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, 51, denied the charges against him and argued he was made a scapegoat for the scandal, which provoked worldwide outrage in 2004 when photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners being tormented by grinning U.S. troops circulated around the world.
Jordan was acquitted of being responsible for cruel treatment of detainees, including allegations he had stripped them and threatened them with attack dogs. He was also acquitted of failing to train soldiers to treat inmates properly.
But the military court at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, convicted Jordan of willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, the Army said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Jordan was in charge of an interrogation center at the prison west of Baghdad. But his defense team said he had no command authority over anyone at the prison and his job was to improve living conditions for soldiers there.
Having reached a verdict, the court-martial panel of 10 officers began considering a sentence for Jordan. He could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and dismissal from the Army.
A leading human rights group said prosecutors had performed poorly in the case and the fact Jordan was the only officer to face court-martial over Abu Ghraib was unacceptable.
John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the U.S. government had not been serious about getting to the bottom of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
"They just slapped a couple of wrists and they cleared all the officers who were in command of any wrongdoing. There was no real accountability," Sifton said.
Images of the the Abu Ghraib abuse, including naked detainees stacked in a pyramid and others cowering before snarling dogs, became public in April 2004.
The widely publicized pictures, taken in late 2003, triggered international condemnation of the United States and damaged the reputation of the U.S. military as it waged war in Iraq.
Critics have argued that others higher up the military chain of command should have been brought to justice for the abuse. But only 11 other soldiers have been convicted in the scandal.
Among the higher ranks, former general Janis Karpinski, prison commander in Iraq at the time of the scandal, was sanctioned with a demotion, but was never put on trial.
After shedding her uniform, Karpinsky said in a book published in late 2005 that the Abu Ghraib abuses "were the result of conflicting orders and confused standards extending from the military commanders in Iraq all the way to the summit of civilian leadership in Washington."
The jury deliberated for an hour on the sentence before suspending its sitting until Wednesday morning.
"I accept and I respect your decision," a visibly moved Jordan told the court in a statement following the conviction.
"When I first saw the photographs (...) I was shocked and I was sad. It did not represent the United States soldiers I know and love." |
