US soldier found guilty at abuse court martial

A US military policeman has been found guilty of three charges at a Baghdad court martial over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Specialist Jeremy Sivits (24), the first US soldier court-martialled over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail, had pleaded guilty on all four counts he faced, with one reservation.

A decision on the fourth charge was pending, according to reports.

Sivits was charged with two counts of maltreating detainees, one of conspiracy to maltreat and one of dereliction of duty. As part of a plea bargain, Sivits is likely to get a year in a military prison and be reduced to the ranks.

During the court martial in a makeshift court inside the coalition headquarters in Baghdad Sivits quoted others he described as abusing inmates as saying military intelligence had told them to do so.

"They said that they were told by Military Intelligence for them to keep doing what they were doing to the inmates because it was working, they were talking," he said.

The cases to be brought to trial have drawn calls for the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, who have been grilled in Congress over what they knew about the affair and when.

Sivits is said to have taken many of the pictures of abuse and humiliation at Abu Ghraib prison and is the most lightly charged of the defendants so far ordered to stand trial.

Prosecutors say the abuses took place last October and November and involved around 20 detainees. Photos show the naked and hooded prisoners chained, being taunted with the threat of electrocution and posed to simulate sexual acts.

In others, one naked and bound detainee is being dragged by a leash around his neck, and another is being threatened by unmuzzled dogs as he cowers naked against his cell door.

The US administration has said the abuses were limited to a few soldiers in one prison, but the International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International have issued reports saying the abuse was more systematic and widespread than that and more Iraqis have come forward to allege abuse.

Human Rights Watch wrote to Mr Bush yesterday saying US interrogators' deliberate ratcheting up of pain, suffering and humiliation violated the Geneva and other conventions.

"The sexual humiliation and abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison is just a symptom of a larger problem," Mr Kenneth Roth, executive director of the group wrote. "The Bush administration as a matter of policy has approved a wide range of coercive interrogation techniques that are illegal."

Agencies