Saturday, February 26 2005 09:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Osnabrueck (Germany): Three British soldiers have been jailed for abusing Iraqi civilians in a case that has drawn comparisons with US mistreatment of prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

The most senior of the trio, Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, was given an 18-month sentence after being found guilty of three charges, including failing to report the mistreatment of the captured looters at an aid camp near Basra in May, 2003.

He was also found guilty yesterday (Feb 25, 2005) of aiding and abetting another soldier to assault a prisoner.

A panel of seven officers and a judge at the court martial in an Army barracks sentenced Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, to two years in prison after he was found guilty of disgraceful and cruel conduct for driving a forklift truck with a bound Iraqi suspended from the prongs.

A photograph of the helpless Iraqi dangling from the forklift was among a series of photographs taken by soldiers at the aid camp known as Camp Bread Basket. Other photographs showed naked Iraqi men being forced to simulate sex.

In the verdicts, which were given on Wednesday (Feb 23, 2005), Cooley was also convicted of simulating a punch on an Iraqi.

The third defendant, Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, 30, was sentenced to five months in jail after he pleaded guilty to assault. He had been pictured standing on an Iraqi.

All three soldiers were also dishonourably discharged from the Army.

Announcing the sentence, Judge Advocate Michael Hunter said that an operation launched by the soldiers' superior officers to detain the looters had gone "much further than was intended".

But he said what happened "could have been avoided".

"What you did was not done to discourage the looting, it was done to produce trophy photographs."

The judge added that some of the protagonists in the abuse had not been brought to justice.

The images of the abuse prompted comparisons with the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, which was captured in a series of photographs taken by US guards.