Iraqis Say Graner Got Light Sentence for Prison Abuse

Word that a U.S. Army reservist was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for physically and sexually abusing Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison drew scorn Sunday from Iraqis who thought he should have been tried here and punished with death.

Iraq’s interim government had no official reaction, but a handful of ordinary Iraqis interviewed in Baghdad said the trial brought no justice.

Abdul-Razak Abdul-Fattah, a 65-year-old retired army officer, said he was shocked to see TV footage of Army Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. leaving the court smiling and laughing even while his legs and hands were shackled.

“It showed on his face that he did not regret the shameful acts that he and his colleagues committed,” he said. “Perhaps Americans think that those things, I mean showing people naked, is normal and not shameful.”

Graner, 36, thought to be the ringleader of the abuse, was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out.

Graner was sentenced Saturday to 10 years in military prison in the first court-martial of the scandal. Asked if he felt remorse after the sentence was handed down, Graner said: “Bad things happen in war.”

Graner will be dishonorably discharged when his sentence is completed. He also was demoted to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits.

Trader Ali Ahmed, 23, said Graner’s sentence was too light.

“Even capital punishment isn’t enough,” he said. “But since it’s forbidden to torture him the way he tortured the prisoners, I would have settled for the death penalty.”

A teacher in Kirkuk said the abuse at the prison recalled the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, and was perhaps more shocking because it was not expected from a country that preaches respect for human rights.

“Iraq was a cemetery for human rights violations. When Saddam created the mass graves we thought that it was a savage thing,” Sardar Mohammed, 38, said. “But when we saw the Americans and what they have done at Abu Ghraib, I was astonished because America came here carrying slogans of freedom and democracy.”