Mid-day Charles Graner Trial Update: Day Two
The AP reports on witness testimony at day two of Charles Graner's Abu Ghraib abuse trial.
A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib said Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. was the Baghdad prison's primary torturer who laughed while physically abusing him and threatened to kill him more than once.
Amin al-Sheikh, testifying via videotaped deposition shown in court Tuesday, said Graner also made him eat pork and drink alcohol, in violation of his Muslim faith, and that he listened through his cell wall while Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner eat from a toilet.
....Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: "He was laughing. ... He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing."
I wonder if Graner still thinks things are going well for him. Here's more from the article:
While being kept at a tent camp next to Abu Ghraib, al-Sheikh said, he was wounded in the leg and chest in a shootout with Americans after he obtained a handgun from an Iraqi guard because he feared for his life. He said Graner, whom he described as the "primary torturer," jumped on his injured leg and struck it with a collapsible stick. That is the basis for one of the assault charges. On another occasion, he said, Graner handcuffed him to his cell door with his arms behind his back for eight hours.
Graner also on different occasions accompanied a U.S. soldier who urinated on him, al-Sheikh said. Another American threatened to rape him, he said.
Our day one roundup is here. Eve of trial report is here. Full coverage since May, 2004 is here.
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