US marines jailed for electric shock torture of Iraqi

Two US marines have been jailed by a military court in Iraq for torturing a prisoner with 110-volt electric shocks, it was revealed today.

Privates Andrew Sting and Jeremiah Trefney, both 19, punished the Iraqi inmate for speaking loudly and throwing rubbish from his cell at the Mahmudiya military jail south of Baghdad.

Initially the soldiers were simply reprimanded, according to their lawyers. However, in the wake of the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison the pair faced a secret military hearing last month.

The disclosure that Abu Ghraib was not the only US facility where prisoners were mistreated will fuel suspicions that such abuse was much more widespread than US forces currently admit.

It also appears that the inmate was being disciplined rather than "softened up" for interrogation, the excuse offered by most of the soldiers accused of the Abu Ghraib abuse.

Both men pleaded guilty to assault, cruelty and maltreatment, and dereliction of duty. Sting was sentenced to a year in jail while Trefney got eight months. They were also given dishonourable discharges.