Abu Graib Abuse Trial to Begin Friday
Update: The jury of ten has been seated. All men, four officers and six enlisted men.
Charles Graner is scheduled for trial today in Fort Hood, Texas on abuse charges stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. He is considered a ringleader. He is also the father of Lynndie England's baby. In civilian life, he was a Pennsylvania prison guard who has been accused of beating an inmate and a husband accused of spousal abuse.
The prison guard from Uniontown, Pa., is accused of jumping on detainees, stomping on their hands and feet, and punching one man in the temple hard enough to knock him out. In one of the photos that blew the scandal wide open, Graner is shown giving a thumbs-up behind a pile of naked Iraqi inmates. Another photo shows him cocking his fist as if to punch a hooded detainee.
According to Lynndie England,
Graner... applied needle and thread to prisoners after beating them. "Cpl. Graner would personally stitch up detainees if the wound weren't too bad," she said. "He would take pictures of his work. One particular incident Cpl. Graner ran a former Iraqi general into a wall and split his lip. Cpl. Graner stitched up his lip."
Graner got a bit of a break Thursday when prosecutors dropped four charges. He now faces a maximum of 17 1/2 years in prison.
His defense will be that he was acting on orders from higher-ups. You can access all of our prior coverage of his case here.
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