Graner was sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Reuters)

TEXAS, January 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A US military jury on Friday, January 14, found Army Reserve Spec. Charles A. Graner guilty of sexually abusing and torturing Iraqi prisoners in a scandal that triggered anti-American fury worldwide and blemished the US army’s reputation.

Another US soldier was also sentenced on Friday to a year in jail for the murder of a bleeding Iraqi teenager last year, Reuters news agency reported.

A 10-member military jury found Graner, 36, a former civilian prison guard, guilty on 10 charges, many of which were documented by photographs of sexual humiliation of naked male prisoners that shocked the world after they were leaked last year.

Because the jury altered one count to a lesser charge of assault, rather than use of force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm, his maximum sentence was lessened to 15 years from a possible 17 1/2 years, a prosecution spokesman said.

The charges revolved around Graner's organizing a pyramid of seven naked Iraqis, one of whom he struck and two of whom he demanded simulate having oral sex; putting a leash around a naked prisoner's neck, and assaulting another recovering from gunshot wounds.

When photos of sexually-abused Iraqi prisoners were passed to CBS News, the New Yorker magazine and The Washington Post in the spring of 2004, Abu Ghraib became a media phenomenon around the world.

US President George. W. Bush later summoned Arab reporters to assure them that Abu Ghraib “is a stain on our country's honor,” apologizing to the Arab world.

Scapegoat

A file photo of the torture scenes inside the notorious US-run Abu Gharib.

The prosecution argued that Graner, who was in charge of the night shifts in a cellblock called “Tier One-Alpha,” and others in his unit acted without orders for their own gratification.

“What we have here is plain abuse, no doubt about it; there is no justification,” he said. “It is for sport, it is for laughs. He sends it back home by e-mail for laughs.”

However, in his closing argument, Graner's lawyer said the former Pennsylvania prison guard was following orders of military intelligence officials at Abu Ghraib.

“Corp. Graner is a smart guy, professional and he was doing his job in Iraq,” defense attorney Guy Womack told the court.

“Now the government would ask a corporal, an E4, one of the junior people there, to take the hit for it.”

After most of the specific incidents for which Graner was tried, a superior officer informed Graner in writing that “You are doing a fine job. . . . You have received many accolades from the chain of command and particularly from (chief intelligence officer at the prison) Lt. Col Steven. Jordan,” The Washington Post reported Saturday.

In Womack's final argument to the jury, the lawyer blasted the government for “hiding” the role of superior officers.

“Not one witness from the chain of command came to this proceeding,” he said.

“Do you think the prosecutors just forgot to call those officers?”

In August, US Army Private Lynndie England, who made her presence in most of the Iraqi abuse photos, said she was following orders from her superiors.

The Washington Post reported in June that then top US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez gave free reign to US officers in Abu Ghraib to adopt various torture and abuse tactics used at Guantanamo, with other reports saying the techniques were Okayed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself.

Civilian Killing

Meanwhile, an American soldier was sentenced to a year in jail for the murder of a severely wounded Iraqi teenager in Baghdad’s Al-Sadr district during a Shiite uprising last year.

“Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban was convicted on one count of murder and one count of conspiracy to murder at a court martial at the 1st Cavalry Division courthouse at Camp Liberty today,” a military spokesman said.

Besides his jail term, Alban was demoted to private and sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge.

Alban is the second American soldier to be sentenced over the incident.

Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne was sentenced last month to three years in jail, reduction in rank and dishonorable discharge from the military after pleading guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Another US military officer, 2nd Lt. Erick Anderson, has also been charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.

The cases goes back to August 18 when Alban, Horne and Anderson were part of a US Army patrol in the Al-Sadr City district during a period of intense clashes with fighters loyal to young Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr.

US soldiers saw a group of Iraqi men in a garbage truck who, they suspected, were placing bombs along a road.

American forces opened fire on the Iraqis, killing several of them.

Alban and Horne were accused of fatally shooting an Iraqi man who suffered severe abdominal wounds and burns after the initial barrage of gunfire.

Several US television networks aired in November footage of US marines entering a mosque in Fallujah before one of them shot an unarmed, wounded man in the head as he lay prone against a wall.

In graphic testimonies to a Canadian tribunal last month, political-asylum seekers former Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey and fugitive paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman said they could not tolerate killing innocent civilians in Iraq and treat the Iraqis as terrorists any longer.