US soldier pleads not guilty to wiring Iraqi at Abu Ghraib prison

FORT HOOD, Texas, May 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army reservist charged with attaching wires to a hooded Iraqi prisoner in a picture seen around the world pleaded not guilty on Thursday in the second Abu Ghraib case to go to trial.

Spc. Sabrina Harman is accused of conspiracy, dereliction of duty and maltreatment of subordinates, charges that could bring as much as six and a half years in prison. Her court-martial at the largest U.S. Army base began on Thursday.

The former pizza restaurant worker who joined the Army reserves after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is linked to several of the most notorious Iraqi prisoner abuse photos.

She is accused of posing before a pyramid of naked Iraqi prisoners, photographing them as they were forced to masturbate and placing wires on an Iraqi detainee and telling him he would be electrocuted if he stepped off a box.