Wednesday, May 19, 2004
The prosecutors asked for the harshest sentence.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits received the maximum penalty today -- one year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge -- in the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Sivits, who pleaded guilty to four abuse charges, broke down in tears as he apologized for taking pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated.
"I'd like to apologize to the Iraqi people and those detainees," he said in his statement. "I should have protected those detainees, not taken the photos."
During the hearing, Sivits, 24, told the court he saw one U.S. soldier punch one Iraqi in the head and other guards stomp on the hands and feet of detainees. He also recounted that prisoners were stripped and forced to form a human pyramid.
Bid for leniency
His lawyer had appealed to the court for leniency, saying Sivits could be rehabilitated and had contributed to society in the past. Sivits himself pleaded with the judge, Col. James Pohl, to allow him to remain in the Army, which he said had been his life's goal.
"I have learned huge lessons, sir," he said. "You can't let people abuse people like they have done."
Sivits, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, a Reserve unit based in Cresaptown, Md., was found guilty of two counts of mistreating detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse, cruelty, and forcing a prisoner "to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers," a military briefer said after the proceedings.
Military officials said Sivits would be transferred to a military regional confinement facility to serve his sentence but did not specify which facility.
Harshest sentence sought
He had been expected to get a relatively light sentence and then testify against others. But prosecutors asked the judge to impose the harshest sentence despite Sivits' willingness to provide details about the crimes of other defendants, saying that Sivits knew that abuse was banned by the Geneva Conventions.
Earlier today, three others from Sivits' company accused in the abuse -- Sgt. Javal Davis, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick Frederick and Spc. Charles Graner Jr. -- appeared for arraignment in the courtroom at the Baghdad Convention Center, located in the heavily guarded Green Zone.
The three waived their rights to have charges read in court, and their pleas were deferred pending another hearing June 21 after the defense complained it had been denied access to two victims of abuse who were government witnesses. The judge asked prosecutors for an explanation.
Cameras barred
Arab television stations appeared deeply skeptical of the proceedings, with reporters from the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya satellite networks questioning why cameras were barred from the courtroom. Others demanded that higher ranking American officials be punished.
"Those who are executing the laws and the orders are not the problem. ... Punishment of the officials who gave the orders is what matters," Samer al-Ubedi, who said his brother died in U.S. custody, told al-Jazeera. "The punishment must be as severe as the crime."
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, said a fair and impartial trial "will go a far way in demonstrating to people that, yes, these pictures did happen, yes, these acts did happen, but we're taking the right corrective action to investigate prosecute and bring to trial those accused of these crimes. "
1st Lt. Stanley L. Martin, Sivits' lawyer, had expressed concern about the huge media coverage of the trial, asking the judge, "Can you make a fair decision?"
Pohl replied: "Just because it's on TV, it doesn't mean it's true."
Hometown support
In Sivits' tiny home town of Hyndman, Pa., more than 200 residents wore yellow ribbons and clutched small American flags during a candlelight vigil to support him.
His father, Daniel Sivits, made a brief statement.
"I want to make explicitly clear, Jeremy, no matter what, is still my son. We still love him," Daniel Sivits said. "I am veteran of the Vietnam war, and I want to say one thing -- Jeremy is always a vet in my heart and in my mind."
Graner's lawyer, Guy Womack, said today that his client was following orders at the prison, and that officers from U.S. military intelligence and the CIA and civilian contractors were directing the abuse.
"The photographs were being staged and created by these intelligence officers and, of course, we have the two photographs that prove that they were present and supervising," Womack said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."
He said Graner sought clarification of his orders and complained to his superiors and to military intelligence officers about what he was being asked to do. "All of them consistently said that he was to follow the order and not question it. So he didn't," the lawyer said.
Warner added that Sivits also was simply following orders.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.