Soldiers accused of mistreating Basra prisoners
A Danish army captain and four military police sergeants have been charged with mistreating Iraqi detainees at a military camp near Basra last year.
The captain, who was not identified, was charged with four counts of negligence while on duty.
The officer and the four soldiers were charged with verbally humiliating detainees “by using insults such as dogs and pigs,” denying them food and water, and forcing them kneel in uncomfortable positions while they were being questioned, military prosecutor Peter Otken said.
The charges related to three separate episodes in March, April and June 2004.
Captain Annemette Hommel, who last year had faced allegations similar to those in the charges, refused to comment.
Otken, who declined to name the captain, citing Danish privacy rules, said that prosecutors would seek a jail sentence for the officer. The maximum sentence is a year.
The Judge Advocate Corps also said the four military police sergeants had been charged for having forced detainees to sit “in stressing positions,” by forcing them to kneel, legs crossed, and propped on the heels of their feet.
Two of the military police sergeants were also charged with dragging a detainee so his trousers were pulled down to his ankles.
If found guilty, the sergeants also could face a one-year jail sentence each.
No date for a trial has been sent.
Denmark has 501 troops in Basra, 250 miles south-east of Baghdad.
