Saddam's US jailer sentenced

20/10/2007| IslamWeb

Saddam Hussein's former US jailer has been sentenced to serve two years in prison after a US military court in Baghdad found him guilty on charges including illegal possession of secret documents.

However, Lieutenant Colonel William Steele, who was commander of the jail where Saddam was held, was cleared on Friday of  "aiding the enemy".

He had been accused of allowing inmates at the jail at the Camp Cropper base near Baghdad to borrow his mobile phone and make unmonitored calls.

Steele had pleaded guilty at a pre-trial hearing to possessing classified materials and pornographic videos.

He was also found guilty of refusing to obey an order and behavior unbecoming an officer for his relationship with an Iraqi woman interpreter.

Afghan photo

Captain Michael Rizzotti, prosecuting, told the court on Friday that nearly 12,000 secret documents had been found in a search of Steele's living quarters.

"[They were] documents that if [they had] fallen into the wrong hands could be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation," Rizzotti said.

Much of the trial was held in closed session because of the sensitive nature of the documents.

One, however, was revealed to contain aerial photographs of Kandahar airbase and Bagram airfield in Afghanistan.

Steele's case is the latest in a string of scandals to hit the US military prison system since its 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In 2004, pictures of the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad shocked the world.

PHOTO CAPTION

US troops handle Iraqi prisoner