Baghdad
Top-ranking military officials can be called as witnesses in the trials of two American soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners, a U.S. military court ruled this week. The decision came at pretrial hearings for Sgt. Javal Davis and Spc. Charles Graner, the first two of the seven soldiers accused of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison to face trial. Commanding officers—including Gen. John Abizaid, who heads the U.S. Central Command, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq—will have to submit testimony unless they invoke their constitutional right against self-incrimination. The defense is seeking to establish that such tactics as stripping and hooding prisoners and threatening them with dogs were approved interrogation techniques, and that the accused soldiers were following orders.
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