BAGHDAD: A US military special court martial sentenced US Army Specialist Jeremy Sivits to the maximum possible year in prison yesterday and ordered him discharged from the military for bad conduct in connection with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Pronouncing sentence after a three-and-a-half hour trial in Baghdad, US Military Judge Colonel James Pohl also sentenced Sivits, 24, to a grade reduction to the Army's lowest grade, three steps below Sivits' previous designation.

The discharge and prison term were the toughest the judge could hand down under the rules of a special courts martial.

Sivits pled guilty to two counts of maltreating detainees, one of conspiracy to maltreat the prisoners, and one of dereliction of duty. His sentence came as part of a plea bargain for leniency made by his lawyers, under the condition that he will testify in the trials of other defendants involved in the same case. The judge ruled, however, that Sivits would not forfeit two thirds of his pay, another penalty that could have been handed down, so that his family in rural Pennsylvania will not suffer undue loss of income.

Sivits testified that other members of his unit had beaten and sexually abused Iraqi detainees in a case that has badly undermined US authority in the country and in the Arab world.

Sivits, a military police reservist at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, had made a tearful plea before sentencing to be allowed to stay in the service.

"I want to stay in the Army, I love that flag," he said. "That's all I ever wanted to be is an American soldier."

He told the judge how fellow US soldiers sexually humiliated naked Iraqi detainees and punched one so hard he needed medical treatment.

"I should have protected those detainees... I should not have taken that photo," he said in his testimony, referring to a picture he had taken of another soldier maltreating a prisoner. "I'd like to apologize to the Iraqi people and those detainees," Sivits said, adding that he also wanted to apologize to the army and his family.

Nine Arab newspapers and the prominent Arab television networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya were among 34 news organizations allowed to have reporters in the courtroom. But no audio or TV recordings were allowed.

However, Human Rights Watch said yesterday that US occupation authorities refused to allow Iraqi and international human rights groups to attend the court martial.

(HK Edition 05/20/2004 page1)