Defence Lawyers Try To Have Iraqi Prison Abuse Photos Quashed

AFP: 8/23/2004
by Lorne Cook

MANNHEIM, Germany, Aug 23 (AFP) - Lawyers for a US soldier suspected of being a ring-leader in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal moved Monday to have potentially incriminating photographs excluded from his court martial.

The lawyers, representing Corporal Charles Graner at a pre-trial hearing, tried to establish that military investigators had failed to follow the correct procedure when they searched the soldier, his room and a laptop computer.

The investigators told the judge at a US army base in Mannheim, southern Germany that Graner had given a CD-ROM containing dozens of photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused to a colleague.

The 35-year-old military policeman is charged with cruelty and maltreatment, assault, conspiracy and dereliction of duty over the abuses at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

The photographs, allegedly taken by some of the seven soldiers under suspicion and released by the media in April, caused outrage around the world.

The prisoners were photographed naked, in itself deeply humiliating and particular for Muslims, and being forced to perform sexual acts, piled in a pyramid, cowering from dogs or with electrodes attached to them.

Graner told the military judge that he had been living on three to four hours sleep a night and was under extreme stress from his duties when he was questioned and searched in the early hours of January 14, 2004.

"Several of our platoon had taken fire ... both of my roommates had been injured in an IED (home-made bomb) blast," he said. "Many times we went out without armour, a few times we went out without doors" on the vehicles.

"It was one of the more stressful times," he said.

The court heard that Graner, who was dressed in desert fatigues and is the first of four soldiers involved in the two-day hearing, was of above average intelligence and had himself been trained in search and seizure procedures.

"It is simply inconceivable that the accused was not acting in a voluntary manner in this case," said Major Michael Holly, essentially a military prosecutor representing the US government.

Graner was captured in one souvenir-style snap shot standing arms folded with a large smile behind a pile of hooded, naked Iraqi prisoners.

The hearing, known as an Article 39a session, is a one-off procedure, and was moved to Germany following complaints about security from some of the defence lawyers.

"All future hearings and trials will be held in Baghdad, Iraq," said the judge, James Pohl.

Graner and Sergeant Javal Davis, who is facing similar charges, have both submitted a motion for the location of the trial to be changed.

Specialist Megan Ambuhl was also due to appear later Monday, with Davis and the last of the four, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick being heard on Tuesday.

The scandal has seen blame pushed from the guards up the military ranks and embarrassed US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whom Davis wants interviewed for his trial, but has yet to claim the job of any high-ranking official.

But an as-yet unpublished report into the abuses is believed to recommend that a number of military intelligence officers be charged for failing to report them.