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| Sunday, 5 September 2004 |
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U.S. Navy charges sailors WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) The U.S. military has charged four members of an elite Navy SEAL unit with abusing prisoners in Iraq, including a man who died last year after being beaten, the Navy said on Friday. The four sailors face U.S. military criminal charges including assault, aggravated assault, maltreatment of detainees, failure to report maltreatment of detainees, making false official statements to investigators, and solicitation to commit an offense, the Naval Special Warfare Command said. Those charged are members of an elite Sea-Air-Land (SEAL) commando team that was part of the large contingent of U.S. special operations personnel fighting in Iraq. The Navy did not identify the four, nor did it say how many counts were brought against each of them or how many detainees they were accused of abusing. They were charged on Thursday in connection with an investigation into prisoner abuse from October 2003 to April 2004, the Navy said. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego, said more Navy personnel may be charged in an ongoing investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Bender said the charges stemmed from an investigation begun after another Navy SEAL who served in Iraq but has now retired came forward with allegations of abuse by his former comrades. Navy officials said some of the charges were connected to the case of an Iraqi prisoner who was captured in the field by SEALs in November 2003 and later died at Abu Ghraib jail on the outskirts of Baghdad. Army investigators found that the detainee was struck in the head with the butt of a gun when he was taken into custody by the Navy commandos. The injured man was then taken to Abu Ghraib by the CIA and placed in a shower with a bag over his head, investigators found. His death was attributed to a blood clot in his brain that likely stemmed from the blow with the butt of the gun. "The NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) investigation remains open and disciplinary action for additional personnel remains a possibility. So this does not close the door," Bender said. This marked the first criminal charges against Navy personnel in a prisoner abuse scandal that erupted when pictures of U.S. forces physically abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib surfaced in April. Seven Army reservists, all military police soldiers, have been charged, and military investigators have recommended charges against dozens of others in the Army. "The Navy takes all allegations of abuse seriously and will conduct appropriate review of all available evidence involved in this case," a Navy statement said. |
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