US Soldier Gets Maximum Sentance In Iraq

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U.S. Soldier Gets Maximum Sentence in Iraq

 

52 minutes ago

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. special court martial sentenced Specialist Jeremy Sivits to the maximum possible one year in prison Wednesday and ordered him discharged from the army for bad conduct over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

 

Pronouncing sentence after a 3 1/2-hour trial in Baghdad, military judge Colonel James Pohl also sentenced Sivits, 24, to be reduced to the lowest rank of private, three grades below his present designation.

 

The discharge and jail term were the toughest that could have been handed down under the rules of special courts martial.

 

Sivits had pleaded guilty to two counts of maltreating detainees, one of conspiracy to maltreat and one of dereliction of duty as part of a bargain for leniency. He is expected to testify in trials of other defendants in the same case.

 

The judge ruled, however, that Sivits would not forfeit two thirds of his pay, another penalty that could have been handed down, so that his family in rural Pennsylvania would not suffer undue loss of income.

 

Sivits testified that other members of his unit had beaten and sexually abused Iraqi detainees in a case that has badly undermined U.S. authority in the country and in the Arab world.

 

Sivits, a military police reservist at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, had made a tearful plea before sentencing to be allowed to stay in the army.

 

"I want to stay in the army, I love that flag," he said.

 

"That's all I ever wanted to be is an American soldier."

 

Not surprising. I wonder if any are going to refuse to plead guilty to a lesser charge like this guy did and try to drag in the CoC as an excuse.