FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Lynndie England (search), the Army private who appeared in notorious photographs of in which she pointed at Iraqi prisoners' genitals and held a leash attached to a prisoner, has a military court hearing on abuse charges scheduled for next month.
The Article 32 hearing (search) is scheduled for June 21-25 at Fort Bragg, according to Rose Mary Zapor of Denver, Colo., one of England's civilian defense lawyers.
A spokesman for the XVIII Airborne Corps could not immediately confirm the date or offer details of the hearing Friday.
An Article 32 hearing is called by the commanding officer of a soldier's unit to determine whether to recommend a court-martial or other punishment proceeding under military law. It is similar to a civilian grand jury.
Zapor said earlier this week she will ask a military judge to throw out England's confession. The lawyer contends that military investigators pressed England to talk after she had asked for an attorney.
England is one of seven soldiers facing military charges for suspected abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison (search) in Baghdad. Now stationed at Fort Bragg, England appears in several photographs from the prison at the heart of an international scandal.
Army agents violated England's rights by questioning her after she had asked for an attorney, Zapor said.
"She had invoked her right to counsel, and those statements are illegal. In a civilian court, those would be immediately suppressed," Zapor said Monday in a telephone interview.
Defendants in military courts have the same rights to lawyers that criminal defendants have in civilian courts.
Zapor declined to discuss what England told investigators. But England has said in her only public interview, broadcast by a Denver television station, that her superiors gave her specific instructions on how to pose for the photos. Asked who gave the orders, she would say only, "Persons in my chain of command."
England, 21, is charged with assaulting Iraqi detainees, conspiring with Spec. Charles Graner Jr. (search) to mistreat the prisoners and committing an indecent act by forcing prisoners to masturbate. Graner is charged with adultery for having sex with England last October.
Zapor and another lawyer for England, Roy Hardy, have said they will try to determine if the commanding general in Iraq knew about the abuses.
England's hearing may or may not be open to the public, military spokesmen said.
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