KILLEEN, Texas Jan 6 (AFP) - A military policemen seen as the ringleader of detainee abuses at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison goes on trial by court-martial at a US army base in Texas Friday.
Specialist Charles Graner faces a maximum sentence of more than 20 years in prison if found guilty on charges emanating from the sexual, physical and psychological abuse of prisoners at the prison outside Baghdad.
His trial at the Fort Hood army base in Killeen, Texas, will be the first court martial in the Abu Ghraib scandal to be held in the United States.
The military policeman has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stem from incidents that allegedly took place between October and December 2003.
Graner, 36, is considered a key figure in the scandal that erupted in April, when photographs showing US soldiers taunting naked prisoners were published, stirring a global outcry and deeply embarrassing the US military.
Some of the pictures show a smiling Graner standing by human pyramids of naked detainees and giving the thumbs-up sign, at times alongside Lynndie England, apparently his girlfriend at the time.
England, who recently gave birth to a child thought to have been fathered by Graner, is also at Fort Hood awaiting a decision as to whether she should be court martialed.
Graner and others are accused of forcing naked prisoners to masturbate in front of each other and to simulate oral sex. He also allegedly took the infamous picture in which England is holding a detainee on a leash.
The defense claims US guards at Abu Ghraib had been ordered to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation in a bid to obtain information about planned attacks on US troops and other targets in Iraq.
Graner's attorneys also argue that official statements about the scandal, notably by US President George W. Bush, amounted to undue influence on the trial. But a military judge last month turned down a motion to dismiss the charges on those grounds.
One of Graner's attorneys, Guy Womack, claims his client and others facing similar charges were unfairly singled out, and insists the soldiers were following what they thought were lawful orders.
Military and independent investigations of the scandal indicate there were numerous cases of abuses and that commanders failed to take measures to prevent them.
US officials have dismissed the incidents as isolated, but recently released military documents show abuses took place not only in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan and at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba.
Newly released claims by FBI agents of abuses in Guantanamo prompted the US military to announce it was launching an investigation this week.
Two soldiers also with the 372nd Military Police Company, Sergeant Javal Davis and Specialist Sabrina Harman, are to face court martials in Fort Hood in February and March respectively.
A leading US human rights group said that while the soldiers must be prosecuted "they're not the ones who cast aside the Geneva Conventions or who authorized the use of illegal interrogation methods."
Graner's trial "is a first step toward accountability, but no one should confuse it with the end of the process," Reed Brody with the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Graner had already faced accusations of violence in civilian life in the late 1990s.
He was once of the Pennsylvania prison guards named in a federal lawsuit brought by a prisoner who claimed Graner beat him and hid a razor blade in his food. The case was dismissed for technical reasons.
Graner's former wife was granted three "protection from abuse" orders against him as the couple went through a divorce battle. She claimed Graner threatened to kill her.
01/06/2005 19:58 GMT - AFP