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First US military intelligence soldier proved guilty over Iraqi prisoners abuses
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BAGHDAD,
September 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The first US
military intelligence soldier to stand trial over the Abu Ghraib prison
abuse scandal received on Saturday, September 11, an eight-month jail
term after he pleaded guilty.
Specialist
Armin J. Cruz of the 502nd Military Intelligence battalion was also
demolished to the rank of private as another punitive measure after he
confessed to forcing three naked inmates at the notorious Iraqi jail to
crawl along a floor before making them simulate sex acts.
Cruz
was also accused of conspiring with the military police to cover up the
abuses against the Iraqi detainees and mistreating subordinates,
according to the charges sheet, carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
is the eighth American soldier to be charged over the abuses but the
first from military intelligence.
Full
Responsibility
The
soldier's lawyer, Stephen Karns, had earlier said his client took full
responsibility for his actions against Iraqi prisoners.
He
is extremely remorseful with great sympathy for those who have suffered
abuse in the prison, Karns was quoted by the BBC News Online as saying.
The
abuses at Abu Ghraib caused outrage around the world when several graphic
photos of Iraqi
detainees tortured and sexually abused by American soldiers at the
infamous Abu Ghraib prison were made public.
Since
then, the scandal has been deepening, exposing more elements and factors
about interrogation techniques approved
by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has been under domestic and
international pressure to step down.
Collaboration
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Sanchez was deprived promotion over Abu Ghraib scandal
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Cruz
is facing charges of collaborating with the prison ringleaders Sergeant
Ivan Frederick and Corporal Charles Graner in abusing the Iraqi
detainees.
Graner
and Frederick are charged of being the masterminds behind forcing the
Iraqi detainees to wear dog leashes, stacked naked in pyramids and
simulating sexual acts that shocked the whole world when it came to
light in April.
On
August, US Army Private Lynndie England, who made her presence in most
of the Iraqi abuse photos, said she was making abuses against Iraqi
prisoners under orders from her superiors.
In
one startling image, England was
pictured holding a leash
attached to the neck of a naked detainee who was sprawling on the floor
of a cell block.
Seven
US soldiers had been charged for abusing Iraqi detainees at the infamous
Abu Ghraib prison.
The
only US soldier convicted so far is Jeremy C. Sivits, who pleaded guilty
to four counts of abuse at his court-martial in May.
Sivits
was sentenced to a year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct
discharge.
Sanchez
Deprived Promotion
Meanwhile,
former US Central Command chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was been
dropped from a list of those recommended for promotion to general. over
the fallout of abuses at the Iraqi notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
"This
is one individual that is being unfairly held accountable,"' the
Reuters news agency quoted Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, as
telling a House of Representatives Armed Services Committee
hearing Thursday.
"It's
not that Gen. Sanchez was unlucky. It's that he got screwed in this
whole process by a plan that was an abomination ... and we didn't have
enough armed forces in country," Reyes said.
Accusations
were leveled against Sanchez of giving orders for the abuses against
Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison, as questions remain as to how
high up the chain of command the abuses were sanctioned in Iraq.
The
Washington Post said on Saturday, June 12, that Sanchez gave
free reign to US officers
in charge of Abu Ghraib to adopt various torture and abuse tactics used
at Guantanamo.
The
daily revealed on May 23 that Sanchez was
present during some of
interrogations that saw the torture and abuse of prisoners.
