Ninth U.S. soldier jailed for abusing Iraqi inmates |
May 2004 rally in Havana, Cuba. Sign says, In Cuba this would never happen.
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BY SAM MANUEL WASHINGTONThe last of nine U.S. soldiers court-martialed for abuse of Iraqi prisoners, Lynndie England, has been sentenced to three years in prison and a dishonorable discharge from the Army. Several of the soldiers, members of a military police unit assigned to the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, said they were pressured by military intelligence officers to mistreat the prisoners in order to obtain information. No officer was charged for the crime. Revelations last year of U.S. military personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners sparked anger worldwide. England appeared in one photo holding a leash tied to the neck of a naked prisoner (see photo above). Another showed her grinning and pointing at the genitalia of naked Iraqi prisoners as if she was firing a weapon. Englands attorneys said she did this to please her boyfriend, Corp. Charles Graner, also a member of her military police unit. Graner is serving a 10-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after his conviction on similar charges. Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick was sentenced to eight and a half years. Others received sentences ranging from six months to a year. Graner and Frederick had served as guards in U.S. prisons. A prisoner abuse scandal became public at the Pennsylvania prison where Graner worked.
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