- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The
U.S. military has charged four soldiers with murder in the death of an
Iraqi general who suffocated after being shoved in a sleeping bag and physically
abused during interrogation in Iraq last November, the Army said on Monday.
-
- Chief Warrant Officers Jefferson Williams and Lewis Welshofer
Jr., Sgt. 1st Class William Sommer and Spec. Jerry Loper were charged with
murder and dereliction of duty, officials at Fort Carson, Colorado, said
in a statement.
-
- Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abid Hamed Mowhoush, a key air-defense
commander for toppled President Saddam Hussein's military, died last Nov.
26 of "asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression" while
being detained by the U.S. military in Al Qaim near the Syrian border,
according to a death certificate released by the Army in May.
-
- The criminal charges were the latest in a series brought
against U.S. troops stemming from the abuse and in some cases deaths of
numerous prisoners held in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-
- The murder charge carries a maximum sentence of life
in prison without possibility of parole, while the dereliction charge carries
a maximum sentence of six months of confinement, according to the statement.
-
- The U.S. military initially described the general's death
as apparently from natural causes, but changed the account in the weeks
after revelations surfaced this spring of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners
at the Abu Ghraib jail on the outskirts of Baghdad.
-
- 'SUFFOCATING HIM'
-
- A summary released by Fort Carson of the charge sheets
brought against the four soldiers said they killed him "by means of
suffocating him with the use of a sleeping bag and electrical cord."
-
- The U.S. military has said U.S. soldiers placed Mowhoush
head-first into a sleeping bag, then rolled him back and forth during questioning
before a soldier sat on his chest. The general was in custody for about
two weeks before his death.
-
- The initial U.S. military account of his death last November
described it much more benignly.
-
- A military statement said, "Mowhoush said he didn't
feel well and subsequently lost consciousness. The soldier questioning
him found no pulse, then conducted CPR and called for medical authorities.
A surgeon responded within five minutes to continue advanced cardiac life-support
techniques, but they were ineffective. According to the on-site surgeon,
it appeared Mowhoush died of natural causes."
-
- The Army said the four soldiers, all of whom are back
in the United States after serving with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
in Iraq, have not been placed in detention and still are serving with their
units.
-
- Kim Tisor, a spokeswoman at the base, said if the military
proceeds with courts-martial, the trials would be held at Fort Carson.
Tisor said the next step for the soldiers is a proceeding called an Article
32 hearing in which an officer hears evidence and decides whether the case
should go to trial, but the soldiers could waive this proceeding.
-
- Williams, Welshofer and Sommer were members of military
intelligence units, while Loper was part of an aviation maintenance unit,
the Army said.
-
- - Additional reporting by Judith Crosson
-
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-
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