WASHINGTON, May 12: A former top United States commander at the Abu Ghraib prison has been reprimanded and fined over the abuse of detainees. Earlier, an army court found Col M. Thomas Pappas guilty of two counts of dereliction of duty, including that of allowing dogs to be present during interrogations.

Col Pappas, who was in charge of military intelligence personnel at the prison, was fined $8,000. Last week, former commander of the jail Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski was demoted. Ms Karpinski has said that she was made a scapegoat for the failures of her superiors.

Col Pappas commanded the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade at the prison in late 2003, when most of the abuses of detainees there were committed.

He was expected to relinquish his command in Germany, where the brigade is based, next month as part of a regular rotation, but it is unclear whether he would be formally relieved earlier.

The letter of reprimand from Maj-Gen Bennie E. Williams, Commander of the 21st Theater Support Command in Germany, effectively ends the career of Col Pappas, whose leadership at the prison has been criticized by several investigations into the abuses at Abu Ghraib and other detention sites in Iraq.

An army investigation last August found that military intelligence soldiers played a major role in directing and carrying out the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, undercutting Pentagon’s earlier contentions that a handful of renegade military police guards were largely to blame. That inquiry, by Maj-Gen George R. Fay and Lt-Gen Anthony R. Jones, recommended punishment for Col Pappas and Lt-Col Steven L. Jordan, who was in charge of the prison’s interrogation centre.