MANNHEIM, Germany, 25 August 2004 — The highest-ranking US soldier accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners has reached a deal to plead guilty to some charges at his forthcoming court-martial in Baghdad in October, one of his lawyers said yesterday.

“There have been deals over charges and the sentence,” Gary Myers, one of the lawyers for Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick told reporters after a pretrial hearing in Germany.

He declined to give details but said Frederick took responsibility for his part in the abuse scandal that sparked outrage across the world when it emerged earlier this year. Frederick, one of four soldiers facing the pretrial hearing, issued a statement on Monday indicating he intended to plead guilty to at least some of the charges.

“He has, unlike many, accepted responsibility for corrupt behavior generated by the circumstances that existed in Abu Ghraib,” Myers said. He and his wife, whom the accused had not seen in more than 15 months, held hands in silence as Myers spoke to reporters. “Some of the initial charges have been dismissed, some will remain,” he said after Frederick’s pre-trial hearing in Mannheim, southern Germany. “He will be found not guilty on some charges.”

“What happened at Abu Ghraib was a complete breakdown of discipline and authority,” he said, and added: “It was a quagmire.”

Photographs of smiling American soldiers tormenting naked detainees rocked the US military when they emerged in April, prompting claims that policies adopted in President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” had encouraged the cruelty.

Frederick is accused of participating in an incident where a prisoner was hooded and made to stand on a box with wires attached to him, and told he would be electrocuted if he fell off — an image splashed on front pages worldwide.

He is charged with assault, cruelty and maltreatment, conspiracy and indecent acts. Defense lawyers for the accused — Frederick, Sgt. Javal Davis and Spcs. Charles Graner and Megan Ambuhl — argue their clients were following orders systematically to break inmates for interrogation. US officials say the accused were wayward individuals and their actions isolated ones.

Judge James Pohl dismissed a motion from Davis’ lawyers to call Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to give testimony and refused to move the trial away from Baghdad, where lawyers for the accused fear civilian witnesses will be unwilling to appear.

Frederick’s court-martial in Baghdad, referred to in the hearing as a “sentencing procedure” will take place on Oct. 20. One US soldier, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, was sentenced to a year in prison in May after pleading guilty at a special court-martial to abuse charges. Frederick, wearing desert fatigues, stood holding the hand of his wife next to his lawyer but declined to comment.

“It is a tremendously depressing experience for a man who has given 20 years’ good service to his country,” Myers said. “You will find he is a good person, a good father, a good man. He is hopeful others will take the responsibility he has,” he said.

In a statement to the US media, quoted by the Washington Post, Frederick said that he hoped other army personnel involved in “the chaos that was Abu Ghraib will also come forward and accept responsibility”.

A US prosecutor acknowledged yesterday that charges were being prepared against senior US military intelligence officers and other staff over abuses committed against inmates at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. As the legal net widened to include up to 28 suspects, one of seven military police officers already accused over the scandal said he had reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to some of the charges.

Details of the new suspects came as a US military prosecutor, Maj. Michael Holly, tried to stop immunity being granted to a number of intelligence officers over fears it would compromise the case being built against them. Holly referred in particular to US Col. Thomas Pappas, who was in charge of the military intelligence unit that worked at Abu Ghraib, outside Baghdad, and the man responsible for interrogation there, Lt. Col. Steven Jordan. “We are still trying to identify the culpability of Col. Jordan and Col. Pappas,” Holly told the pretrial hearing.

“You are telling me that there is thought to criminally prosecute these individuals and that, as such, they should be given immunity,” mused Pohl over the two days of hearings.