Reservists Face Charges in Iraqi's Death

May 7, 2004 -- As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faces questioning on Capitol Hill over the abuse and humiliation of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, ABCNEWS has obtained new photographs in a case in which an Iraqi prisoner died at a makeshift prison camp run by U.S. Marines in southern Iraq.

The photographs show a 52-year-old former Baath Party official, Nadem Sadoon Hatab, who died at the detention center last June after a three-day period in which he was allegedly subjected to beatings and karate kicks to the chest and left to die naked in his own feces.

Abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Camp White Horse was allegedly carried out by U.S. Marine reservists. The accused reservists have told their lawyers they were given orders to "soften up" the men in their custody for interrogation by what were known as human exploitation teams from military intelligence.

After the prisoners were allegedly softened up, "the interrogations were conducted by these human exploitation teams that as far as we can tell didn't report to anybody in the normal chain of command," according to Don Rehkopf, an attorney for one of the accused reservists.

According to the military autopsy report obtained by ABCNEWS, Hatab's death was ruled a homicide, caused by strangulation, the result of a fracture of a bone in his throat. The medical examiner testified it took him hours to die.

"He was … covered in sweat and feces. It was a little hard to get a grip on him so he was moved by essentially hauling him backward by his jaw, kind of holding him onto his lower jar and upper part of his head," said Jane Siegel, attorney for the former officer in charge at Camp White Horse, against whom charges have been dismissed.

Marine Reserve Cpl. William Scott Roy, a deputy sheriff in Rensselaer County, N.Y., has admitted his involvement and agreed to testify against fellow reservist Sgt. Gary Pittman, also from New York.

Pittman is accused of karate-kicking Hatab in the chest when the prisoner allegedly refused to follow orders.

Lawyers say none of the Marines spoke Arabic, nor were there any translators assigned to the camp.

"There was a failure in the senior command leadership. I'm not talking about the command at the Marine Corps level, I'm talking the DOD [Department of Defense] level," said Rehkopf.

According to testimony in the case, Hatab was targeted for especially harsh treatment because he was believed to be in possession of Jessica Lynch's 507th Army Battalion weapon and suspected of involvement in the ambush of her unit.

The court-martial in the alleged homicide, one in more than a dozen such suspicious deaths of Iraqi prisoners, is scheduled to begin in Camp Pendleton in San Diego in August.