US Army reprimands officer for disobeying order
A US military jury today sentenced the only officer court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal to a reprimand, sparing him any prison time for disobeying an order to keep silent about the prison abuse investigation.
The jury in Fort Meade, Maryland had acquitted Army Lt Col Steven Jordan a day earlier of all three charges directly related to the mistreatment of detainees at the US-run prison in Iraq.
Photographs showed US soldiers grinning alongside detainees held in humiliating positions. Jordan never appeared in any of the inflammatory photos, but as director of the prison’s interrogation centre and the highest ranking officer there at the time, he had been accused of fostering a climate conducive to abuse.
Jordan was convicted of a single charge: disobeying a general’s order not to discuss the abuse investigation.
The reprimand was among the lightest sentences Jordan could have received.
Whether it will become part of Jordan’s permanent service record is up to the court-martial convening authority, Maj Gen Richard Rowe, commander of the Military District of Washington.
He will make those decisions after reviewing a written summary of the trial.
