Court martial proceedings began yesterday for a US prison guard accused of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, with the trial of a second US soldier expected to get underway later in the day.
Specialist Charles Graner, who posed in a notorious photograph with naked Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid last autumn, appeared clean-shaven in court and sat with his two attorneys, Guy Womack and Jay Heath.
The judge, Colonel James Pohl, turned down a request from the defense attorneys for an expert witness, Psychologist Craig Haney, who participated in a landmark 1971 study at Stanford University where students pretended to be prison guards and within days started committing abuses against pretend detainees. Instead, Pohl said the government would provide a psychologist to work with the 36-year-old Graner within seven days.
The hearing followed Thursday's sentencing of the most senior officer charged so far in the case, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, to eight years in prison.
Frederick, who sat impassively through the two-day court martial at a US base in Baghdad, appeared shaken and looked at the floor after Pohl announced his verdict, which included a dishonorable discharge and a demotion.
Defense counsel Gary Myers said the sentence was excessive and he would appeal.
Frederick, the most senior soldier indicted in the scandal, pleaded guilty to five charges that included assault, committing an indecent act and dereliction of duty.
He admitted helping tie wires to the fingers and penis of one prisoner and telling him he could be electrocuted, and forcing three hooded detainees to masturbate.
The lawyer of the second man to be tried yesterday -- Sergeant Javal Davis -- said his defense would point the finger at his higher military command for the actions last autumn at Abu Ghraib.
"Our position is that there was legally improper and unlawful command influence at the highest level," said attorney Paul Bergrin.
Bergrin said the 26-year-old Davis was to plead not-guilty and request his trial be moved back to the US. Davis will also request immunity be granted for some witnesses, Bergrin said.
The defense strategy of blaming the higher chain of command is the same being employed by almost all those so far accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal. During Frederick's trial, witnesses painted a picture of a prison where higher authorities looked the other way if it resulted in good intelligence.
The evidence, from an officer and a chief warrant officer who served at the jail, is among the strongest so far in the Abu Ghraib trials pointing to more senior involvement in the abuse
So far seven guards have been charged. Specialist James Sivits pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to a year in prison. One military intelligence officer, Specialist Armin Cruz, was sentenced last month to eight months.
A report, commissioned by the Pentagon and released in August faulted top commanders in Baghdad, elsewhere in the Middle East and in the Defense Department for failing to lay down clear guidelines for the treatment of prisoners.
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