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`Witch of Abu Ghraib' to plead guilty on charges

Private First Class Lynndie England will plead guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, her lawyer said late Friday, about a year after photos of her sexually humiliating inmates made her the face of a scandal that damaged the credibility of the US military.

England will plead guilty in a military court tomorrow to seven of the nine counts against her: two counts of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating prisoners and one count of dereliction of duty, said Rick Hernandez, her civilian lawyer.

England, a 22-year-old army reservist who was a clerk at the Baghdad-area prison, was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday at Fort Hood. Hernandez said the plea deal was reached Friday afternoon during a meeting with military prosecutors at the army post.

"This is in her best interests," he said.

One count of committing indecent acts and one count of failure to obey a lawful order will be dismissed, Hernandez said. That will drop the maximum sentence she faces from 16 1/2 years to 11 years, he said.

If the plea agreement is accepted by army judge Colonel James Pohl, a panel of soldiers will determine her punishment.

Hernandez said he plans to call Private Charles Graner, a former Abu Ghraib guard and the reputed ringleader of the abuses, as a defense witness.

Graner, said to be England's ex-boyfriend and father of her young son, was convicted in January on a range of abuse charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The lawyer said it had not been decided whether England will take the stand on her own behalf.

England, from Fort Ashby, West Virginia, was one of seven members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company charged with humiliating and assaulting prisoners at the prison near Baghdad.

She became a focal point of the scandal after photos of her surfaced, include one that showed her smiling and posing with nude prisoners stacked in a pyramid.

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