A U.S. soldier convicted of using his dog to abuse detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was sentenced Friday to 90 days of hard labor without imprisonment, ABC News reported.

According to the verdict made by a military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, Santos Cardona, 32, will be reduced one military rank and lose 600 U.S. dollars of his monthly pay for 12 months, for his role in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal of late 2003 and early 2004.

Cardona will be allowed to stay with his military police unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and will perform the labor at the behest of his company commander while remaining free of incarceration.

He was charged with conspiracy and abuse relating to a series of incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison.

A military jury on Thursday found Cardona not guilty of several charges involving a series of abuses but decided he was responsible for allowing his dog, Duco, to bark and growl at one detainee in U.S. custody.

He is one of the 11 U.S. soldiers who have been convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal, in which detainees were abused and photographed in painful or sexually humiliating positions.

However, Cardona's sentence, without jail time and discharge, is the lightest for those who have faced a court martial.

Source: Xinhua