A US military court has temporarily halted a hearing to decide if Private Lyndie England, the soldier photographed holding a naked Iraqi prisoner on a leash, should stand trial for abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
Lawyers for England asked hearing officer Colonel Denise Arn for permission to call more than 50 additional witnesses, including some top U.S. government and military officials, after the court in North Carolina heard 25 witnesses over the first four days.
England was charged with 19 counts of prisoner abuse, committing indecent acts and disobeying orders in a scandal that shocked the Arab world and damaged the US image during a bloody insurgency in Iraq last spring.
She faces up to 38 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Arn said she would take some time to consider if additional witnesses should be heard and gave no indication when England's hearing, which started on Tuesday, would resume.
