The first US military intelligence soldier brought to court in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal yesterday pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy and mistreatment of Iraqi detainees, witnesses said.
Specialist Armin Cruz, 24, of Plano, Texas, pleaded guilty as soon as the special court martial hearing opened in Baghdad, observers said.
Military intelligence Specialist Cruz was accused of ordering soldiers to force naked and handcuffed Iraqi detainees to crawl so their genitals dragged on the floor, according to the military's charges.
He was also accused of conspiring with military police to cover up the abuse of Iraqi detainees and mistreating subordinates as he carried out the cover-up, the charges read.
Cruz, who joined the army in September 2000, faces a maximum punishment of up to a year in jail, demotion to private, a fine of two-thirds of his salary and a bad-conduct discharge from the army.
The young soldier, who has cropped dark brown hair and a square jaw, sat slightly hunched in the dock, according to a military courtroom drawing.
The government has already charged seven soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company with involvement in prisoner abuse at the notorious jail outside Baghdad in late 2003, and one has been convicted.
The charges mentioned Cruz's collaboration with the alleged ringleaders among the prison's guards: Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Corporal Charles Graner.
Graner and Frederick are accused of being the instigators behind some of the photos of naked detainees wearing dog leashes, stacked in pyramids and simulating oral sex that shocked the world when they came to light in late April.
Abu Ghraib, where at least one inmate died, has been the focus of several army investigations and has come to be a black stain on the US record in Iraq.
Twenty-seven military intelligence officers have now been recommended for indictment. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters on Friday that at least 45 people would face court martial over the scandal.
Initially, the administration of President George W. Bush insisted that sexual and physical mistreatment, which rights groups have said amounted to torture, was limited to the seven military police prison guards who were the first to be charged in the case.
The allegations and charges have since spread far beyond this group to implicate other US agencies and personnel.
So far, Colonel Thomas Pappas, commander of the 205th military intelligence brigade which Cruz was assigned to, is the highest-level officer whose case has been recommended for disciplinary action.
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