US generals face prison abuse hearings

He ruled that the head of US-led forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, and other senior officials could be called as witnesses.

The ruling came at a hearing into the case of three soldiers charged with abuses at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

They are Charles Graner, Ivan Frederick and Javal Davis.

Monday's initial hearing in Baghdad is intended to resolve any legal technicalities before they face a full trial.

One soldier, Jeremy Sivits, has already been sentenced to a year in jail, but this trio face more serious charges and sentences of up to 24 years.

One of the defence lawyers says he will seek to call US President George W Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Civilian defence counsel Paul Bergrin - who represents Sergeant Davis - accused Mr Bush and Mr Rumsfeld of sidestepping the Geneva Convention in their "war on terror", and said his client was instructed on a daily basis to "soften up" Iraqi prisoners to obtain intelligence.

At the hearing, the judge, Col James Pohl, declared Abu Ghraib a crime scene and ordered that it not be destroyed.

President George W Bush had offered to tear down the jail, which was already infamous as a place where opponents of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein were tortured.

Specialist Graner has been accused of striking several detainees by jumping on them as they lay in a pile on the floor.

He is also charged with stamping on the hands and bare feet of several prisoners, and punching one inmate in the temple so hard that he lost consciousness.

Sergeant Frederick is accused of forcing prisoners to masturbate, placing naked detainees into a human pyramid and placing wires on a hooded detainee's hands, telling him he would be electrocuted if he fell off a box on which he was forced to stand.

A photograph of the incident was one of the most widely circulated when the abuse scandal first came to light at the end of April.