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New sex charges against U.S. soldier in Iraq
U.S. military prosecutors have lodged new sex charges against a female soldier photographed holding an Iraqi prisoner on a leash in an abuse scandal that rattled the U.S. war effort in Iraq, officials said on Friday.
A statement issued in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said she was charged late on Thursday with violating a rule that prohibits creation and possession of sexually explicit photographs and with four counts of indecent acts.
England had been due to face a military court in Fort Bragg on Monday, but her lawyers requested a delay, a military spokesman said.
England became pregnant in Iraq and media reports have said the father is one of her superiors, Sgt. Charles Graner, who also has been charged in the abuse scandal.
Monday's hearing is the first stage of legal proceedings, known as an Article 32 investigation, to decide whether England should face trial.
The original charges state that she conspired to mistreat Iraqi prisoners, assaulted prisoners on at least three occasions, committed acts prejudicial to good order and committed an indecent act.
England, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, was charged along with six other U.S. military police reservists with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. One soldier has been sentenced to a year in prison after admitting abuse charges.
Lawyers for some of the accused MPs have said intelligence officers ordered the soldiers to "soften up" prisoners for questioning. The Pentagon has denied accusations it sanctioned rough treatment to make people talk.
"OBEYEING ORDERS"
England has said she was obeying orders when she was photographed in gleeful poses with humiliated prisoners at Abu Ghraib. In one of the pictures, taken in late 2003, she pointed at the genitals of a hooded, naked man, a cigarette dangling from her lips.
The photographs were made public in April and prompted worldwide protest against the U.S. treatment of war prisoners, damaging U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.
President Bush and other U.S. officials apologized but put the blame on a small group of soldiers. The alleged abuse took place as U.S. forces pressed prisoners for information to halt a bloody insurgency.
The legal proceeding at Fort Bragg on Monday is known as an Article 32 investigation. A hearing officer will decide whether England should face trial.
The U.S. military statement on Friday offered no details about the new charges and officials were not immediately available for comment.
England's lawyers, who have called their client a "poster child" for the Bush administration's flawed Iraq war policies, will be able to call witnesses. But Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will not be among them.
"They are not on the (witness) list. We requested it but they were denied," Lori Hernandez, a member of England's legal team, told Reuters this week.
Pictures taken at Abu Ghraib showed U.S. soldiers piling naked Iraqis into a pyramid and threatening them with dogs. In one, a hooded prisoner has electrical wires attached to his body. |
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