Americans guilty of Afghan torture
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An Afghan court has found three Americans guilty of torturing Afghans in a private jail, a case that comes on the heels of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq.
Jonathan K. "Jack" Idema, a former Green Beret and the alleged ringleader of the operation, received a 10-year jail term on Wednesday.
Brent Bennett, an Idema associate, got a 10-year jail term and Edward Caraballo, a journalist, received an eight-year-term. The court sentenced four Afghan accomplices to lesser terms.
The defendants, also charged with running a private prison and illegal detention, were being held in a Kabul jail.
They had denied the charges, saying they were operating in Afghanistan with the approval of the U.S. and Afghan governments. Their lawyers said the case had not been handled properly and planned to appeal.
But two of the prisoners from the private jail, who were in the court, said the defendants should have received stiffer sentences.
Idema, who attended each hearing wearing sunglasses and khaki fatigues bearing a U.S. flag, said the verdict was reminiscent of the hard-line Taliban movement.
"It's the same sick Taliban judges, the same sick sense of justice," The Associated Press quoted Idema as saying as he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.
"I knew that the American government wasn't going to help me," he said.
Idema's attorney, John Tiffany, has said his client was helping the U.S. military capture terrorists and recently foiled an assassination attack on the U.S. ambassador and Afghan officials. But the U.S. government has denied any connection with the three.
Earlier this year, the Afghan government investiged claims by citizens who reported family members missing over several months.
In July the government raided a rented house where the three Americans lived in Kabul and discovered a private prison inside the house with eight prisoners, according to a senior official in the Afghan Ministry of Interior.
Idema and his colleagues told Afghan authorities that they were operating the prison because they wanted "to take part in the war on terror," the Afghan official said. The official said the Americans did not torture their prisoners but did administer "some beatings."
The Americans were mainly detaining men with long beards on the outskirts of Kabul who they suspected -- based on their appearance -- to be members of al Qaeda, the interior ministry official said.
Idema and his two colleagues would then interrogate the prisoners in an attempt to get them to confess they were members of the terrorist network, the official said.
The arrests came as the U.S. military investigated allegations of detainee abuse in Afghanistan at the hands of American jailers.
That investigation was prompted by outrage after photographs of abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison captured international attention.
Idema and his colleagues rented the house near Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, and told neighbors that they were operating an export company that traded Afghan rugs, the Afghan official said.
Freelance journalist Kitty Logan contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
