Feb 2 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army officer, whose public refusal to go fight in Iraq made him a champion of the anti-war movement, faces a court-martial next week when a military panel could determine the limits of free-speech rights for officers. Following are some facts about U.S. courts-martial. * The U.S. armed forces do not have permanently established trial courts for prosecuting military members. Courts-martial, or military criminal trial courts, are convened by commanders with the authority to do so, on an as-needed basis. * U.S. Congress, through the Uniform Code of Military Justice, specifies which commanders and officials have the authority to convene a court-martial. A commander who possesses the authority to convene a court-martial is known as a convening authority. * The convening authority convenes a court-martial by issuing an order that charges previously initiated against an accused service member will be tried by a specified court-martial. This order is called a "convening order." The convening order may designate when and where the court-martial will meet. * Court-martial proceedings are generally open to the public and media. * Eleven U.S. soldiers have been convicted for abusing inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Of the 11 people convicted of Abu Ghraib-related abuse, one received a 10-year sentence and another eight years. None of the others received more than three years. The cases arose after the 2004 leak of photographs showing U.S. military personnel abusing and sexually humiliating Abu Ghraib prisoners. * A U.S. Marine accused in the kidnap and murder of an Iraqi grandfather who was posed with a gun to look like an insurgent was sentenced to 21 months in custody on Nov. 21, 2006. The Marine, one of eight U.S. servicemen charged in the April 2006 shooting death in the Iraqi town of Hamdania, was the fourth defendant to plead guilty to lesser charges in the case, and each was sentenced to between one year and 21 months in custody. Four others still face courts-martial. * On Dec. 21, 2006, the U.S. military charged four Marines with murder and four others on related charges in the November 2005 deaths of 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq. (Sources: Reuters, about.com)
