Key US figure in Iraq prisoner abuse found guilty

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military jury found US soldier Charles Graner guilty on Friday of abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in a scandal that badly damaged America's worldwide reputation following the invasion of Iraq.

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 men that shocked the world after they were leaked last year.

Graner stood at attention and looked straight ahead without any visible reaction as the verdict was read. He held his hands tightly clenched.

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, in one attack his maximum sentence was lessened to 15 years from a possible 17 1/2 years, a prosecution spokesman said.

In his closing argument, Graner's lawyer said the former Pennsylvania prison guard was following orders of military intelligence officials at Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad as part of a vital, larger US war effort in Iraq.

"Corporal Graner is a smart guy, professional and he was doing his job in Iraq," defence 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."

The prosecution argued that Graner and others in his unit acted without orders for their own gratification.

"This cannot become the recruitment poster for the United States Army," prosecutor Captain Chris Graveline said as he held up an enlarged photo showing Graner in front of a pyramid of naked detainees.

"The accused is a smart person and he is the instigator of what happened at Abu Ghraib among the MPs (military police)," he said.

The charges revolved around Graner's organising 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 an inmate recovering from gunshot wounds.

Using a series of photographs and a video first made public during the trial, prosecutor Graveline expressed outrage at the abuses and showed emails from Graner in which he boasted of his actions and attached digital photographs.

"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 email for laughs."

"It is all about their own sexually depraved humour," he added.

Defence attorney Womack said military intelligence officials not military police, were the ones well versed in techniques to gain information, and said the period in question came just weeks before the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Graveline mocked Womack by recalling a photo Graner took of a woman prostitute forced to show her breasts. "Is that the military intelligence? Is she the one who gave up Saddam Hussein?" he asked.

After delivering the verdict, the jury met to consider the penalty. That meeting could go on into Saturday.

Four others implicated in the Abu Ghraib scandal have already pleaded guilty.

- REUTERS