Charles Graner
Charles A. Graner Jr. (* 1968 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) was an American soldier in the United States Army Reserve until his dishonorable discharge . He gained notoriety as a participant in the Abu Ghuraib torture scandal .
Life
Graner was already deployed as a reservist in the United States Marine Corps in the Second Gulf War , including with his unit for guarding what was then the largest prisoner of war camp on the Kuwaiti - Iraqi border with 20,000 prisoners. After his return he became a prison overseer , among other things in a maximum security prison in the State Correctional Institution Greene in Pennsylvania. Graner was seen as unreliable on the job, especially after his wife, with whom he had two children, divorced him in 1997 because of violence. He was fired in 2000 and took a job with a private security company .
Graner was a particularly devout and active member of the Bread of Life Tabernacle , an evangelical church in Uniontown , Pennsylvania . There, just a few months before his second assignment in Iraq, he visited the parish with Lynndie England .
As part of the occupation of Iraq after the third Gulf War , he was a soldier in the US Army , to whose reserves he had meanwhile signed up, as a military policeman in the Abu Ghuraib prison operated by US troops . 2004 appeared photos from there on, the members of the US armed forces in torture showed and degrading treatment of prisoners. Graner was seen as the leader of these acts, but claimed to have only obeyed orders from higher authorities. He couldn't prove it.
On January 14, 2005, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for torturing Iraqi prisoners of war . Even immediately after the trial, Graner showed no remorse and tried to justify his actions. As a Christian he knew that his behavior was wrong, but at the time he was convinced that his actions were correct. As a soldier, he has to obey and unconditionally carry out orders from superiors.
On August 6, 2011, Graner was the last of the convicts to be released early from the maximum security United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth after six and a half years in prison for good conduct and participation in work programs , but remained under parole until December 2014.
Graner married Megan Ambuhl in April 2005 , who had been demoted and fined for the torture in Abu Ghraib. He has a child with Lynndie England .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Unveiling the Face of the Prison Scandal in: Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2004
- ↑ US frees Abu Ghraib abuse ringleader Charles Graner in: BBC of August 6, 2011
- ↑ The main culprit of Abu Ghuraib is free again in: Spiegel Online from August 7, 2011
- ↑ Kate Zernike: Behind Failed Abu Ghraib Plea, a Tangle of Bonds and Betrayals. The New York Times , May 10, 2005, accessed June 12, 2013 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Graner, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Graner, Charles A. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American soldier in the US Marine Corps |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania |