A former Abu Ghraib guard pleaded guilty to battery and two other charges in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal as part of a deal with prosecutors on the eve of his trial. 

Sergeant Javal Davis, 27, also pleaded guilty on Tuesday to dereliction of duty and making a false official statement to army investigators after photographs of naked and abused prisoners became public last spring. Davis will not be tried on two other charges he had faced: Conspiracy and maltreating detainees.

Defense attorney Paul Bergrin said last week Davis was working on a deal with prosecutors that would cap his possible sentence at 18 months.

Captain Chuck Neill, a prosecution spokesman, acknowledged that a deal was made, but would not comment on the sentencing.

A jury of officers and soldiers were selected yesterday for sentencing. Neill said the jury's sentence recommendation will be compared to the deal offered to Davis, and that the lesser sentence will be served.

"We intend to present a very, very aggressive sentencing trial such that this panel will give him no punishment at all," Bergrin said, adding that Davis will likely testify during the hearing.

Davis admitted on Tuesday that he stepped on the hands and feet of some of the seven detainees brought into his section of Abu Ghraib for punishment after a November 2003 disturbance in a prison tent camp nearby. He said he also fell with full weight on top of them.

In a separate hearing on Tuesday, an Army reservist in a military intelligence unit was sentenced to 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy and maltreating detainees at the prison.

Specialist Roman Krol, 23, admitted pouring water on the naked detainees in October 2003, forcing them to crawl around the prison and throwing a foam football at the prisoners while they were handcuffed on the floor.

Krol said other Abu Ghraib guards were present at the time, and that Private Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the abuse, made the detainees do jumping jacks while naked. Graner was convicted last month for his role in the scandal.

Krol chose Colonel James Pohl, the judge in the Abu Ghraib cases, to hear his case and sentence him, rather than go through a jury trial.

Davis, serving with the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company, said he was upset because a female soldier had been hit in the face with a brick during the tent camp incident, and that he took out his anger on the prisoners.

"It hurt me on the inside and I just lost it," said Davis, who stands about 1.85 meters tall and weighs nearly 100 kilograms.

"I was not trying to hurt them. I was just trying to scare them, but I did it."

Davis, who did not appear in any of the notorious Abu Ghraib photos, also said he saw others abusing detainees, but he did not come forward.

Davis told the judge that he saw what he believed to be military and civilian intelligence personnel physically mistreating detainees and, among other things, using unmuzzled dogs to terrify prisoners before questioning.

(China Daily February 3, 2005)