A US Army dog handler was demoted and sentenced to 90 days of hard labor today for using his dog to assault a prisoner at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Sgt. Santos Cardona, 32, of Fullerton, California, the 11th US soldier convicted for abusing Abu Ghraib detainees, also will have to forfeit $7,200 in pay, an Army spokeswoman said. He will not be confined during the term of hard labor but will be demoted to specialist.
A US military court-martial panel of four officers and three enlisted personnel convicted Cardona today of two counts that could have led to 3 1/2 years in prison -- failing to handle his dog properly and using the unmuzzled Belgian shepherd to threaten a detainee with a force "likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm."
He was cleared on seven other counts, including accusations of letting his dog bite a prisoner and of conspiring with another dog handler to frighten inmates into defecating and urinating on themselves.
Cardona's defense attorneys had sought to portray him as a victim of unclear orders and an ambiguous chain of command that silently condoned using dogs to terrorize Iraqi prisoners in hopes of getting more intelligence out of them.
Cardona's case arose after the 2004 release of photographs of Army personnel at Abu Ghraib letting snarling dogs intimidate prisoners and forcing the inmates into humiliating poses.
Cardona's verdict and sentencing come as the military investigates new allegations that US Marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked attack in November in the town of Haditha. The US military also is investigating four other cases in which US troops are alleged to have killed Iraqi civilians.
Cardona's dog-handling colleague, Sgt. Michael Smith, was convicted in March and sentenced to 179 days in jail. No soldier above the rank of staff sergeant has been convicted of abuse at the prison but Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, who headed the interrogation center, is scheduled to become the first officer to face a court-martial on abuse charges.