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Two Marines Plead Guilty to Iraqi Abuse

By MARTHA RAFFAELE, Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Two 19-year-old Marines pleaded guilty to giving electric shocks to an Iraqi prisoner they were guarding in early April, months after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse, military officials said.


Pfc. Andrew J. Sting and Pfc. Jeremiah J. Trefney entered their pleas at a May 14 court-martial in Iraq , according to a statement by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. Lt. Nathan Braden, a Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton, Calif., released the statement Thursday.

Sting and Trefney were infantrymen with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which is stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and attached to the 1st Marine Division based at Pendleton.

According to the military statement, the pair and two other Marines wanted to discipline the detainee for throwing trash outside his cell and speaking loudly at the Al Mahmudiya prison, a temporary holding facility south of Baghdad.

The Marines attached wires to a power convertor, which delivered 110 volts of electricity to the detainee as he returned from the bathroom, the statement said.