Soldier Gets 1 Year In Abuse of Iraqis

'I Let Everybody Down,' He Says After Guilty Plea

BAGHDAD, May 19 -- An Army judge sentenced Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits to one year in prison Wednesday for his role in abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, closing out the first prosecution of an American in the scandal. Sivits, who provided a detailed account of the mistreatment he witnessed, tearfully apologized in court to the Iraqi people and the victims, saying: "I let everybody down."

Sivits was sentenced after pleading guilty to four criminal counts and agreeing to testify against six other accused Americans.

About 150 angry Iraqis rallied near the makeshift military courtroom, denouncing as a whitewash the start of a judicial process that U.S. officials have said they hoped would demonstrate their resolve to punish all Americans who committed crimes in the prison and mollify widespread Arab anger.

During a four-hour hearing, Sivits testified that he witnessed repeated acts of violence the night of Nov. 8 when he was summoned to help fellow members of the 372nd Military Police Company receive custody of seven Iraqi inmates.

Sivits, who was a mechanic attached to the company and not a prison guard, told the court that during a 30-minute period, he saw military police officers from the unit stomp on the toes and fingers of a pile of detainees, strip them of their blue and orange jumpsuits and civilian clothes and force them to simulate and perform sexual acts with one another. He said the soldiers also hit two prisoners, one so hard that he blacked out.

Answering a question from the judge, Col. James Pohl, Sivits said he did not know why the soldiers had behaved the way they had. But Sivits said a person present that night told him that members of U.S. military intelligence had encouraged them to "keep doing what they were doing to the inmates because it was working. They were talking." Sivits said he did not believe that was true.

The basics of Sivits's allegations had become public through statements he made to investigators. But his testimony Wednesday presented a lengthy start-to-finish description of behavior in one of the cellblocks where the photos now known around the world were taken.

Three other members of his unit were arraigned Wednesday in the same courtroom before his hearing. Three others have been charged, but their cases have not been referred to courts-martial.

Sivits broke down on the stand repeatedly. "I'd like to apologize to the Iraqi people and to those detainees," he said. "I let everybody down. I should have protected those detainees that night.

"You have to stand up for what's right," he told the court. "You can't let people abuse people like that. It was wrong. It shouldn't have happened."

With members of the news media, some from Arab countries, looking on, Sivits, 24, pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and three other counts related to failure to stop the abuse and to taking a photograph of the abuse that night.

Sivits begged the judge not to expel him from the Army. Breaking down in tears, the defendant said: "I want to stay in. I love the Army. It's all I wanted to be, an American soldier."

But in sentencing Sivits to a year of confinement, Pohl ordered that he be discharged from the Army for bad conduct and that his rank be reduced to private.

Under a deal with prosecutors, Sivits agreed to testify against six other soldiers in exchange for what is known as a special court-martial, which carries a maximum one-year jail sentence.