Sabrina Harman
Sabrina D. Harman, is one of several U.S. military police officers who have been charged with torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Charges
Harman is accused by the U.S. Army of taking several photographs of a pyramid of naked prisoners, as well as photographing and videotaping detainees who were ordered to strip and masturbate in front of other prisoners and soldiers. She is also charged with:
- Photographing a corpse and then posing for a picture with it
- Striking several prisoners by jumping on them as they lay in a pile
- Writing "rapeist" on a prisoner's leg
- Attaching wires to a prisoner's hands while he stood on a box with his head covered and threatened electrocution if he fell.
Her Side
Harman maintains that the sadistic abuse of prisoners was ordered by her superiors and that she was not given proper training to comply with Geneva conventions. This may not be an effective defense in her trial, however, because the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal explicitly disallows "I was following orders" as a defense for war crimes.