WORLD IN BRIEF

Abuse of Ukrainians At Abu Ghraib Alleged

KIEV, Ukraine -- Two Ukrainian merchant seamen, who ended up in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison after they were detained in August, were kept naked and hooded for hours during their 10-month imprisonment, a top human rights official said Thursday.

Tanker captain Mykola Mazurenko and first mate Ivan Soshchenko were seized by the British navy in the port of Umm Qasr for alleged oil smuggling and sentenced to seven years in prison by an Iraqi court. The two were extradited recently on condition they serve the rest of their sentences at home.

They reportedly claimed that while in Abu Ghraib, they were frequently "subjected to sleep deprivation, kept naked for hours and hooded," Nina Karpachova, Ukraine's ombudsman for human rights, said at a news conference.

Prisoners were often "gassed with tear gas" and forced to "lick food straight from the floor," Karpachova said, citing letters she recently received from the seamen. Karpachova said the two were "in serious health condition." In Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said the U.S. military "will investigate any and all formal complaints by both current and former detainees."

EUROPE

• LONDON -- The U.S. plan to use a military tribunal to prosecute terrorism suspects imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is unacceptable because it would not provide a fair trial by international standards, Britain's attorney general said.

"There are certain principles on which there can be no compromise," Peter Goldsmith said in copy of a speech he planned to make to the International Criminal Law Association on Friday.

"Fair trial is one of those, which is the reason we in the UK have been unable to accept that the U.S. military tribunals proposed for those detained at Guantanamo Bay offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards."

Two of four British nationals still held at Guantanamo Bay are on an initial list of six people to be tried by the tribunal. Five other Britons were released to British officials in March, and were soon freed without charge.

• MOSCOW -- Russian authorities this week freed seven prisoners who had been transferred to their custody from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, news agencies and a relative of one of the men said.

The seven men were captured by U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, then held at Guantanamo Bay for months of questioning. The United States turned them over to Russia for prosecution in February, and Russia charged them with being illegal mercenaries.

The Interfax news agency reported that the seven were released on court order, citing an unnamed source who offered no explanation for the decision. The status of the charges was not made clear, but Russian courts rarely release prisoners if charges are still pending.

Amina Khasanova, mother of one of the former detainees, Airat Vakhitov, confirmed in a telephone interview Thursday night that the men were out of prison, saying her son called her Tuesday and reported that he was free.

-- Peter Baker