WASHINGTON, 16 January 2005 — Army Reserve Specialist Charles Graner Jr., the ringleader of a group of reprehensible guards at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, was convicted on Friday of abusing Iraqi detainees.

America’s reputation suffered a devastating blow last April with the publication of photographs of Graner, Pvt. Lynndie England, with whom he fathered a child, and others in their military police unit grinning beside Iraqis forced into humiliating poses.

Graner, 36, the first soldier to be tried on charges resulting from the scandal, faces up to 15 years behind bars. Four other soldiers have pleaded guilty to charges resulting from the abuse. Three were sentenced to prison terms and one was reduced in rank. Two more face trials in the next two months.

The shocking photos of reservists abusing and sexually humiliating prisoners were first broadcast on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in April. The photos showed naked detainees posing in sexual positions, hooded to electrodes and tethered to a leash.

The international reaction of outrage embarrassed the White House. President George Bush summoned Arab reporters to assure them that Abu Ghraib “is a stain on our country’s honor.” A month later, Bush ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to ensure that any guilty US soldiers would be punished for “shameful and appalling acts.”

Many critics called for Rumsfeld to step down after the scandal broke.

Graner, a reservist from Uniontown, Pa., faced 10 counts under five separate charges: Assault, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty. He was found guilty on all counts. The abuse described in Graner’s weeklong trial took place in the autumn of 2003 and the winter of 2003-04 at Abu Ghraib. Between 80 and 100 of the toughest prisoners, including those arrested for attacking Americans, were detained in a cellblock called “Tier One-Alpha.”

As his verdict was read, Graner stood at attention and looked straight ahead without expression. His parents, Charles and Irma Graner, held hands tightly as they listened.

The jury took less than five hours to reach the verdict, and immediately began the sentencing phase. Graner expressed remorse yesterday, but said he was acting under orders and had complained to his superiors about the way prisoners were treated.

“I did what I did. A lot of it was wrong, a lot of it was criminal,” Graner told the jurors. “I did not enjoy it,” said Graner. “We were not treating the prisoners the way we were supposed to, so I complained,” he said.

Graner said his superiors, including some officers, told him that military intelligence personnel called the shots at the prison and that he should “follow their orders.”

He said he thought at the time that those orders were lawful, though he now realized they were not. He nonetheless boasted that “I probably know the Geneva Conventions better than anyone in my company.”

Asked what the abuses implied, he said: “I don’t think the use of force so much as irregular treatment.”

“A lot of the off-the-wall stuff was from civilian interrogators, but also some of the craziness came from a lot of the soldiers who were the military handlers,” he said.

Asked why he was grinning on some of the photographs of naked detainees taken by soldiers at the prison, Graner said: “I’m smiling now; it’s a nervous smile.”

Meanwhile, Iraq’s interim government unveiled a security plan for election day, as the discovery of 18 executed Iraqis on roadsides across the country yesterday underscored the insurgency’s ability to plunge the vote into chaos.

Thirteen corpses were discovered near Latifiyah, a rebel stronghold south of Baghdad which the US-led multinational forces swept less than two months ago, witnesses said.

It appeared most of the victims had been shot at close range but residents were afraid to alert police for fear of reprisals by insurgents in the stretch of lush farmland south of Baghdad where some are still faithful to detained dictator Saddam Hussein, said local Abdul Saleh Ithawi. The bodies of four Iraqis working for a foreign company were also discovered near Kut, a city southeast of Baghdad, police said. The US military also retrieved the body of an executed Iraqi from a river north of Baghdad.

— With input from agencies