Three US soldiers accused over the abuse scandal at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail declined to enter pleas Wednesday during a series of short pre-trial hearings in Baghdad. The sole judge, Colonel James Pohl, ordered Sergeant Javal Davis, 26, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, 37, and Specialist Charles Graner, 35, to return for a further hearing in Baghdad on June 21. The three, who all appeared alongside military lawyers in a courtroom inside the compound headquarters of the US-led coalition, told the judge they understood the charges against them. Davis faces five charges, including maltreatment of detainees, notably piling them into a heap and jumping on them. Frederick faces six charges that included punching a detainee in a way that was "likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm", leaving the detainee with breathing difficulties. Graner faces seven charges including assaulting detainees and dereliction of duty, as well as adultery. The three face a general court martial with an unlimited penalty if found guilty. Later Wednesday Specialist Jeremy Sivits was due to appear before a special court martial as the first person to be tried over the prison abuse scandal that has severely dented his country's claims to be the liberators of the Iraqi people. Sivits, 24, is expected to plead guilty and faces up to one year behind bars. He stands accused of taking the now notorious photograph of naked Iraqi detainees forced to form a human pyramid of bodies. His trial will be used by the United States as a public demonstration that it is prepared to take action against those responsible for the scandal. Television cameras have been banned inside the room but eight of the 34 seats allocated in the chamber have been given to Arab media to try to create the impression that the coalition is dealing aggressively with the abuse complaints. A separate room will carry closed-circuit television pictures to scores more media. But in Washington human rights monitors complained Tuesday that they will not be allowed to observe the trial. Sivits has been charged on three counts: The first that he conspired with six others around November 8 last year to maltreat detainees and took the pyramid picture. The second alleges dereliction of duty in failing to protect detainees from abuse. The third alleges he maltreated a detainee by leading him to a pile of inmates where he was assaulted by other soldiers. He is then accused of taking another picture while one of his colleagues kneeled on the detainees. The trial coincides with new allegations by a US Army soldier who is to be tried this week on charges of deserting from the Iraq war as he claims he saw civilians die and Iraqi prisoners mistreated as early as May 2003. "It wasn't what I had imagined as a soldier, that we were going to attack a defined enemy and that soldiers were going to be killed by enemies," said Florida National Guard Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, whose court-martial begins Thursday at Fort Stewart, Georgia. "I saw rather that a lot of innocent people died, a lot of civilians." Mejia, 28, also claimed he saw as early as May 2003 prisoners being mistreated. "In early May we went to a prisoner detention camp" in Al Assad, he said. "We began to see that prisoners were not allowed to sleep for several hours. Plus, there was psychological mistreatment. They were threatened with death, they screamed at them and they insulted them," Mejia said. "It was something that did not appear right." The Internatinal Committee of the Red Cross has reported what it called systematic abuse of Iraqi prisoners that amounted to torture, saying it first raised concerns with the United States more than a year ago. Although graphic photos of the abuses only became public last month, sparking a scandal that continues to rock Washington, the Red Cross report was submitted in February and based on visits to Iraqi prisons between March 31, 2003, and October 24. A Red Cross report specifically on abuses it witnessed at Abu Ghraib prison was delivered to US military commanders in Iraq in November, but it was not taken seriously and the allegations it made were not investigated until two months later, The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday quoting a senior US Army official. The Red Cross report instigated attempts by the US military to curtail the international group's unannounced visits to sensitive cellblocks at Abu Ghraib where interrogations were taking place, the daily said. Mejia, who has dual Nicaraguan and Costa Rican nationality, said he was in Iraq from April to October 2003, when he obtained permission to return to the United States for two weeks. Mejia, born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, is not a US citizen but has permanent resident status. In March, military officials said he would face a special court-martial, sparing him the risk of facing a death sentence, the harshest possible penalty for desertion. A special court-martial means Mejia could receive no more than one year in a military prison and a bad conduct discharge if convicted, a military spokesman said. Mejia filed for conscientious objector status with the Pentagon, his civilian lawyer, Louis Font of Brookline, Massachusetts, said in March. He is seeking an honorable discharge and dismissal of all charges against him. He has been in the Florida National Guard for almost six years and served in the Army for three years before that. "I came back and I decided not to return (to Iraq) because I doubted the constitutional and international legality of the war, and because I was morally opposed to the things that I had seen over there as a soldier," Mejia said. "I'm at peace with my decision. I would have liked to have done something more, but at least I know that what I did was right." **Two Iraqis Killed in Karbala*** Meanwhile, US occupation forces and followers of Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr have clashed in Karbala, leaving four Iraqis dead and nine wounded. Hospital sources reported the latest casualties following clashes early on Wednesday. The fighting came as US tanks advanced near the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, where occupation forces were facing fierce battles with al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Iraqi militiamen, loyal to wanted cleric Moqtada Sadr, pose for a picture in the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad. (AFP)