Iraqis displeased with Graner sentence but distracted by bigger problems News
Iraqis displeased with Graner sentence but distracted by bigger problems

[JURIST] Iraqis reacting Sunday to Saturday's sentencing of US Army Spc. Charles Graner [JURIST report] for abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad were mostly critical of his ten year sentence, five years short of the legal maximum. But while a number suggested that death or even similarly-torturous treatment would have been a more fitting punishment, more were unfamiliar with the trial, little-covered in the Iraqi press, and were distracted by more pressing local concerns, such as security, shortages, and the upcoming Iraqi elections. Reuters has more. Even as Iraqi officials announced new security measures [AP report] for the January 30 vote, including possible curfews and driving bans, the already-troubled electoral situation in the northern city of Mosul [Wikipedia article] took a turn for the worse when the head of the local election commission there fled after being accused of embezzlement. From Baghdad, Azzaman [newspaper website in Arabic] has local coverage of the story in English.