The Hindu : International : Plea to move prison abuse case out of Iraq rejected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 24, 2004

International

International

Plea to move prison abuse case out of Iraq rejected

MANNHEIM (GERMANY), AUG. 23. Lawyers for a key suspect in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal failed to persuade a U.S. military judge on Monday to bar evidence gained from the defendant's computer, which the defence argued may have been improperly obtained by investigators.

Judge Col. James Pohl also rejected a defence motion to have Spc. Charles Graner's eventual trial moved out of Iraq, saying the request was premature.

As the two-day hearing began at a U.S. military base in Germany, lawyers for Spc. Graner — identified in previous testimony as the alleged ringleader — suggested he had been too tired to make a clear decision about his rights when he allowed investigators to take a laptop and CDs from his quarters at the prison in January. But Col. Pohl provisionally rejected a defence request to bar anything found on the laptop as evidence, while stressing that the point could be discussed again later once it became clear what exactly was on the computer.

Legal sparring

He granted a defence motion to suppress a statement by Spc. Graner, cited by a military investigator who testified that ``everything you want is in my computer.''

Spc. Graner (35), is among four soldiers charged with abuse at Abu Ghraib who is facing hearings this week at a heavily secured U.S. military base in Mannheim. Spc. Megan Ambuhl's case was to be heard later on Monday, while Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick and Spc. Javal Davis had hearings set for Tuesday.

The judge's rulings followed a morning of legal sparring in which Spc. Graner's defence argued he was too tired and under too much stress from working in Iraq when he signed an initial consent form allowing investigators to search his room.

They also argued it did not give the Government the right to go into his computer.

— AP

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