Three year imprisonment for US soldier in Abu Ghreib case

The American military court issued a three- year imprisonment sentence against the American female soldier Lynndie England after she was convicted of violating the honor and maltreating the detainees of Abu Ghreib jail in Iraq.

England was convicted of six accusations among seven, all of them concerning taking pictures of one Iraqi prisoner naked while she is carrying a chain connected to his neck, and other pictures taken in 2003 in which a group of prisoners were piled as a pyramid shape while she is pointing to the "organ" of one of them having a cigarette in the mouth. These pictures raised great anger in the world when they were issued in 2004.

General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that members of the U.S. armed forces have been “disappointed and felt disgraced by” the abuse cases, and “England’s conviction is just one more example of holding people accountable,” he said.

England was found guilty by a jury of five Army officers of conspiracy, maltreating detainees and committing an indecent act. She was acquitted of a second conspiracy charge. The trial, being held at the Fort Hood, Texas, Army post, now moves into the sentencing phase, and England could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.

"The world will see that Americans will not accept dishonorable behavior," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2004 when the U.S. military first brought to light allegations of prisoner abuse. "These are important lessons, though we certainly would not have chosen to teach them this way."

England, 22 years old, who will be expelled from the army because she did not preserve its honor, said that she will not face the full term imprisonment as she had expected, and not even the penalty advocated by the attorney, for six year imprisonment.

Hours before the release of the verdict against her, she apologized for what she had done saying she had heard that the pictures caused after its release attacks on the American forces.

England is one of nine U.S. soldiers who have been tried by military courts for prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison. Her trial was the last in the detainee abuse scandal; two other soldiers were convicted in trials and six made plea deals.

England apologized for the multinational forces, for all families and then for the prisoners, the families, America and all the soldiers.