Iraq slams release of Abu Ghraib torturer

This file photo shows Charles Graner while abusing a detainee

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192843.html

Iraqis have slammed the US for releasing the former notorious ringleader of the US guards, Charles Graner, who was found guilty of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Having only served six and a half years of his 10-year sentence, the US army released Graner from the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, AFP reported.

US army spokeswoman Rebecca Steed explained that he was released on the grounds of “good conduct.”

Iraqi citizens in Baghdad as well as in a number of other cities slammed the decision to release him as an unjust one, saying that US troops should not be granted immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

“This is an unjust decision … anyone who [has] committed such crimes should not be freed so easily,” said Wael Safah Jassem, a local citizen.

Many Iraqis have also called for the execution of Graner. “He should be executed for his crime in Abu Ghraib,” said government employee Anwar Hamud.

Graner was the head of a 6-member team of US prison guards who had sexually abused the prisoners of Abu Ghraib, after the US-led invasion in Iraq in 2003.

His team had taken photos, posing next to naked detainees stacked in a Pyramid, held on a leash or threatened by dogs. The photos then somehow found its way to the media in 2004 and further damaged the reputation of the US.