MANNHEIM, Germany, 24 August 2004 — A US soldier at the center of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal sought yesterday to strike from his court martial potentially incriminating photographs at a hearing before a military judge in Germany.
Spc. Charles Graner and three others are accused of sexually humiliating and, in some cases, beating Iraqi detainees at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Shocking photos of the torment of naked Iraqis sparked worldwide outrage when they emerged in April and sparked criticism that sweeping US anti-terror policies had encouraged the abuses.
Graner, who faces the most serious accusations and who featured prominently in the abuse photographs, was the first to appear, sitting beside his lawyers.
Dressed in desert fatigues, the military policeman answered questions about the long hours in Iraq, sometimes 17 hours a day transferring detainees, and the stress of being under fire.
“We worked every day... Several of our platoon had taken fire. Both my roommates had been injured, took blasts... It was one of the most stressful times,” he said.
“It is simply inconceivable that the accused was not acting in a voluntary manner in this case,” said Maj. Michael Holly, essentially a military prosecutor representing the US government. Graner was captured in one souvenir-style snap shot standing arms folded with a large smile behind a pile of hooded, naked Iraqi prisoners. The hearing, known as an Article 39a session, is a one-off procedure, and was moved to Germany following complaints about security from some of the defense lawyers. “All future hearings and trials will be held in Baghdad, Iraq,” said the judge, James Pohl. Graner and Sergeant Javal Davis, who is facing similar charges, have both submitted a motion for the location of the trial to be changed.
Earlier, a military investigator referred to CDs, taken from Graner’s laptop, with hundreds of photographs, featuring detainees being abused. Graner’s lawyers said the photographs had been taken without his consent. They argued that their client had only agreed to have his room searched after being woken in the middle of the night. His bewildered state rendered his consent invalid.
Graner, 35, is accused of photographing a detainee being dragged by Private First Class Lynndie England on a leash, and posing for a picture by a pile of naked detainees in November. He is also charged with forcing prisoners to strip naked in front of each other, and forcing one detainee to simulate oral sex on another, before taking a picture, as well as adultery.
The accused, Spc. Graner and Megan Ambuhl, Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick and Sgt. Javal Davis, will appear in two days of pre-trial hearings at a US base in southwest Germany, chosen to allow easier access for their attorneys.
Judge James Pohl will consider a variety of motions to move their pending court martials from Baghdad, to dismiss one of the cases and to strike out certain statements made by the accused.
Defense lawyers argue their clients were simply following orders to break inmates for interrogation. US officials say the accused were just a few wayward individuals.
At an initial hearing in Baghdad in June, Graner’s lawyer said US President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should take the witness stand. Davis’s lawyers are set to bring a motion compelling Rumsfeld to testify.
Later, the judge threatened to suspend the court martial of Graner if government investigators are not quick to conclude reports into the abuses. “I will reconsider whether this case should be dismissed,” the judge told lawyers representing the United States government.
“The government has to figure out what they want to do with the prosecution of this case,” said James Pohl.
He set a deadline of Oct. 21 for the investigators to show they had made progress in sorting through hundreds of thousands of files on a secret military computer, some of which the defense needs as evidence. If they did not, Pohl said, legal proceedings against Graner, believed to be a ringleader in an abuse scandal that has shaken the military and the authority of the United States, could resume once the reports were finished.
