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NYT：イラク拷問・虐待米兵7の内1名の軍法会議が5月19日と決定したが
イラク人の記者は、なぜイラクの法廷で裁かないか、イラク人は裁判に参加できないのか、という疑問を投げ掛けている。
アメリカの軍事裁判の専門家は、他のほとんどの米兵が正しい行動をしていると言い張る指揮官の下では、被告は公平な裁判を受けることは不可能と主張している。
軍法会議は軍目的に従い、命令に服さない軍人を罰して、軍の方針を貫くためのものである。
アメリカの「正義」、法秩序が、ここで、ますます厳しく問われることになる。
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/international/middleeast/10ABUS.html?th
May 10, 2004
First Trial Set to Begin May 19 in Abuse in Iraq
By DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 9 -- A 24-year-old military policeman from Pennsylvania will be court-martialed here on May 19, the first American soldier to face trial in the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, military officials said Sunday. In an extraordinary gesture to address outrage over the abuse scandal, the military is permitting broad public access to the trial and will invite the Arab news media.
The policeman, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who American officials contend took some of the photographs of Iraqi prisoners that captured the abuse as it unfolded, is one of seven American soldiers to face criminal charges and the first to receive a trial date. There were indications that Specialist Sivits had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in exchange for leniency at sentencing.
The decision to allow a wide level of public access to Specialist Sivits's court-martial appears to reflect a conclusion by American commanders that the abuse and the photographs have severely damaged the credibility of the United States enterprise in Iraq and the country's reputation in the Middle East. While American courts-martial are not usually conducted in secret, it is unusual for the military justice authorities to make them easily accessible to the public.
"It is our endeavor and it is our desire to make the upcoming courts-martial as available as possible," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy chief of operations, said at a briefing here. "We try to make these types of proceedings as transparent as possible. It is not our intention to hide anything."
Six of the seven American soldiers facing trial are believed to still be in Iraq, and General Kimmitt said they would probably be tried here. Any sentences meted out would probably be served in the United States, he said.
In anticipation of intense interest from around the world, General Kimmitt said military officials might hold the trial in Baghdad's convention center, a spacious building with several auditoriums, in the heavily fortified area known as the Green Zone.
Military officials declined to comment in detail about the case, but the speed with which Specialist Sivits's trial was announced, and the type of proceedings he faced, suggested that he had reached a deal with prosecutors that could include testifying against his comrades.
Specialist Sivits, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company from Maryland, is charged with maltreatment of detainees, conspiracy to maltreat and dereliction of duty.
Under a proceeding known as a special court-martial, the maximum penalties he could receive would be one year of confinement, a reduction in grade, a forfeiture of pay for 12 months and a fine. He could also be discharged from the Army for bad conduct.
But military law experts said prosecutors could have tried Specialist Sivits in a general court-martial, where he could have faced stiffer penalties. In a general court-martial, Specialist Sivits could have faced a slightly longer term of confinement and a dishonorable discharge, a more severe form of expulsion than that for bad conduct.
"This soldier is not being exposed to the full punishment," said Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice in Washington and an authority on military law. "It may be that they are going to use him as a witness and use him to hammer other people."
Mr. Fidell said it was possible that Specialist Sivits had reached an agreement on a plea and on his sentence. In military courts, sentences are typically decided in a separate hearing, after guilt or innocence is determined or a plea is offered.
Under military rules, Specialist Sivits will be allowed to choose between a trial by one judge or a panel containing a minimum of three soldiers of superior rank. If Specialist Sivits opts for such a panel, he may request that at least one-third of the panel members are, like him, enlisted soldiers. The panel members would decide the punishment.
Besides Specialist Sivits, from Hyndman, Pa., and the six soldiers who also face criminal charges in the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners confined to Abu Ghraib, seven soldiers who held supervisory roles have received letters of reprimand.
Photographs of the abuse, which have been shown around the world and have created a crisis for the Bush administration, show American soldiers standing over Iraqi inmates, some of them naked and in sexually provocative positions. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has taken responsibility for the abuse scandal but resisted pressure from antiwar critics to resign, has said many more shocking photographs and videos of the abuse exist.
Specialist Sivits's role in the scandal is not clear. His unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, provided the guards for the prison. But Specialist Sivits has not appeared in any photos made public. Some military officials say they believe that Specialist Sivits took some of the photos.
In an internal military report on the abuse, Specialist Sivits's name appears on a list of 13 witnesses and suspects. He is designated as one of three suspects.
In a telephone interview on Sunday evening, Specialist Sivits's mother, Sissy Sivits, said the family had little information about his status. "You guys know more than we know," Ms. Sivits said from her home in Hyndman, a small town in southwest Pennsylvania. "How we found out about the court-martial date is on the news. He's not allowed to tell us anything."
"We were told to keep our mouths shut," she said. "I'm not hurting my son any more than he's already hurt."
Ms. Sivits said her son had been trained as a mechanic, not a prison guard, and that it was her understanding he had been ordered to take the photos. She said she did not know who gave the order. She said a military lawyer, Stanley L. Martin, had been appointed to represent her son.
Specialist Sivits's friends and neighbors said in interviews in Hyndman that they were shocked that he was being accused of anything improper. They described him as well liked around town and said that he had excelled at baseball on his high school team in Hyndman, where they said he had graduated in 1998.
Several said he was committed to his military career, and had served in Bosnia before Iraq. They said he fairly recently married a woman who works in health care. One neighbor, Peggy Shroyer, said Specialist Sivits had talked about someday doing the same sort of work as his wife. Ms. Shroyer's husband, Harry Shroyer, said that as a youth Specialist Sivits would help anyone who needed it.
Knowing that Specialist Sivits was a trained mechanic, Ms. Shroyer said, people in Hyndman have been trying to figure out how he wound up in the prison. "We're all asking the same question: Why would they put a guy in the motor pool in a place like that?" Ms. Shroyer said.
Specialist Sivits spent part of his youth riding four-wheelers at the home of Fred Hendrickson, the grandfather of a childhood friend. Mr. Hendrickson said he had officiated at Specialist Sivits's wedding.
"In my opinion, whatever he did, he did under orders," said Mr. Hendrickson, who described Specialist Sivits as well mannered and honest. "I don't think he volunteered to run the camera."
In his remarks, General Kimmitt said the military was particularly mindful of the need to have the Arab news media see American justice being carried out.
"That is one of the reasons why we are considering holding those trials here in the convention center," the general said.
There appeared to be some dismay among Iraqi reporters about the nature of the court-martial, historically a tool for American commanders to enforce order and discipline in their ranks.
At a briefing with an American military lawyer, an Iraqi reporter demanded to know why Mr. Sivits was not being turned over to an Iraqi court.
"It will be a trial with a United States judge," the American lawyer said.
The Iraqi reporter asked, "No Iraqi participation?"
"No," the American official answered. "This is a United States military courts-martial." It seemed likely that Specialist Sivits' trial, and that of the other American soldiers facing charges in the case, would generate strong emotions in Iraq and around the Arab world. General Kimmitt alluded to that when he said that although the trial would be "open and transparent," the defendants would be presumed innocent.
It seemed likely, too, that the case would generate strong emotions among American troops here in Iraq as well. On Sunday, General Kimmitt spoke of the feelings of American troops in Iraq for the abuse carried out by their comrades at Abu Ghraib.
"There are 135,000 other soldiers out there that are doing the right thing every day," General Kimmitt said. "And even though every one of those 135,000 condemn the actions you saw in those photos, they still want you to understand that they're out there doing a good job, trying to do the right thing and trying to accomplish the mission."
Watching General Kimmitt make that statement on television, Mr. Fidell, the military law expert, said lawyers for the soldiers charged in the case might use the general's remarks as evidence to support the contention that the defendants would not be able to receive a fair trial in Iraq.
"His comments are likely to generate some effort to change the venue," Mr. Fidell said.
Christine Hauser contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article and Richard A. Oppel Jr. from Hyndman, Pa.
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