US soldier sentenced to six months in jail for prisoner abuse

A US Army reservist convicted of mistreating Iraqi prisoners was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in jail for her role in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Iraqi capital Baghdad in late 2003.

Sabrina Harman, 27, a military policewoman, will also be reduced in rank to private and receive a bad conduct discharge, a military jury ruled at Fort Hood, Texas.

The punishments against Harman is one of the lightest handed down in the Abu Ghraib cases.

Harman was found guilty on Monday of four charges of maltreatment of detainees, one charge of conspiracy to maltreat detainees and one charge of dereliction of duty.

She had faced a maximum sentence of five and a half years in jail, but prosecutors asked the jury to sentence her to three years in jail.

Harman appeared in several of the most infamous abuse photos taken by American military police at the Abu Ghraib prison, including one photo showing a naked pyramid of Iraqi prisoners.

She was also found to be behind a photographed incident in which she placed wires on the hands of a hooded Iraqi prisoner standing on a box and said he would be electrocuted if he stepped off the box.

During Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Harman apologized for mistreating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

"As a soldier and military police officer, I failed my duties and failed my mission to protect and defend," she said. "I not only let down the people in Iraq, but I let down every single soldier that serves today."

Harman was the second US soldier tried and convicted in the scandal. Charles Graner Jr., the other soldier to have been tried in the scandal, was convicted in January and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Source: Xinhua