FORT HOOD, May 4: A military judge on Wednesday ended the court martial of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse suspect Lynndie England after throwing out her guilty plea for one of the charges. “We’re going to have to declare a mistrial on at least part of this,” said the judge, Colonel James Pohl, after a dramatic day of hearings at the Fort Hood base in Texas.

Lynndie England acheived international notoriety by being photographed holding a leash attached to a naked Iraqi inmate at the prison near Baghdad. But Col Pohl said there was no way to resolve contradictions in her guilty plea to conspiring to mistreat prisoners, after Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader in the abuse, testified that he had ordered England to hold the leash.

As a result of the judge’s decision to suspend proceedings, England’s plea bargaining agreement with the prosecution is no longer valid and the entire case must now go back to the US military authorities.

Charles Graner’s testimony contradicted England’s written statement and testimony that she knew that posing for the picture of her holding a leash attached to the naked, mentally ill patient was wrong. It also contradicted the charge that Ms England conspired to abuse the prisoners because Charles Graner insisted that he did not act unlawfully.—AFP