WASHINGTON, Feb 18: Documents released on Friday disclosed previously unpublicized allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, including mock executions and beatings
, that were investigated by the US Army, but in some cases dismissed for lack of evidence.
The documents from the army's Criminal Investigation Division were the latest in a series of such documents obtained through a court order by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In the most serious case, an Iraqi detainee in Tikrit claimed Americans dressed in civilian clothes dislocated his arms, stepped on his face, beat his legs with a baseball bat, stuck an unloaded pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The detainee also said the Americans had choked him with a rope during several days of interrogation. The male detainee, who was seized in a raid on Sept 8, 2003, signed a statement on Nov 25, 2003, disavowing a complaint of mistreatment.
He told investigators in August last year that he signed the waiver after being warned he would never be released otherwise. A medical examination performed as part of the army's investigation showed that the detainee, who was not identified, had scars on his left leg and scars from an operation on his stomach.
But members of the reconnaissance platoon that took the Iraqi into custody as a suspected guerilla financier denied he had been abused, or turned over to members of a special operations unit for interrogation.
An army summary said the investigation "failed to prove or disprove the offences of aggravated assault and maltreatment of prisoner occurred as initially alleged". -AFP
