BAGHDAD, 22 June 2004 — A military judge yesterday declared the notorious Abu Ghraib prison a crime scene that cannot be dismantled — as President George W. Bush had offered — and denied defense motions to move the trial of soldiers accused of abusing prisoners there out of Iraq.

Lawyers for three soldiers accused of mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib disputed allegations that their clients were involved in illegal torture. The lawyers insisted their clients were following orders by senior officers and military intelligence.

“We can’t have American soldiers in a war zone questioning the legality of orders,” Guy Womack, the civilian lawyer for one of the defendants, Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr., told reporters.

Womack said there was “a good chance” he would seek to question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld although he doubted he would try to depose President Bush, although “certainly we will be considering it.”

The judge, Col. James Pohl, issued the orders in pretrial hearings for Graner, Sgt. Javal S. Davis and Staff Sgt. Ivan L. “Chip” Frederick II. They are among seven soldiers accused of abusing prisoners. One of them, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to a year in prison.

President Bush had offered to dismantle the facility to help remove the stain of torture and abuse from the new Iraq — an offer Iraqi officials had already dismissed. Saddam Hussein used Abu Ghraib to torture and murder his opponents.

Civil lawyers for Davis and Graner won permission to seek testimony from the top US general in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and from the chief of the US Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid.

But the judge turned down a request to seek testimony from higher-ranking witnesses including Rumsfeld at this time. Pohl left open the possibility of calling other senior figures if the defense could show their testimony was relevant — which Womack said the lawyers intended to do.

Defense lawyers for the soldiers have long maintained their clients were simply following orders and that instructions for harsh treatment to detainees came from the highest levels of the US government.

Lawyers for Davis and Graner also sought unsuccessfully to have the trial moved to the United States or Germany. However, Pohl said he might reconsider his ruling if future events in Iraq precluded a fair trial.

Davis’ civil lawyer, Paul Bergrin, told reporters during a recess that he thought the hearing had gone well. He said lower-echelon troops at the prison had worked under intense pressure from their commanders and the CIA and were using “Israeli methods” — including nudity — known to work against Arab prisoners.

The hearings took place in the Baghdad Convention Center in the heavily guarded Green Zone, the nerve center of the American-run occupation of Iraq. US authorities hope the proceedings will convince Iraqis that the United States does not tolerate abuses of civil liberties.

Davis’ military lawyer, Capt. Scott Dunn, failed to win an order to reopen the Article 32 investigation, which would have in effect dismissed the current charges. Dunn had argued that the military failed to make available a witness during the Article 32 proceedings, which ended with a recommendation for court martial.

However, the judge granted a request by Bergrin to declassify all parts of an Army investigation report conducted by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.