The Abu Ghraib prison scandal headed to the courtroom early today in Iraq with legal proceedings for four of seven reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company who are charged with abusing prisoners.

	Keith Srakocic, Associated Press Daniel and Freda Sivits, the parents of Army Spc. Jeremy Sivits, one of the soldiers charged in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, address a crowd gathered at a service in support of their son yesterday in Hyndman, Somerset County. Click photo for larger image. Related article Will military trials rehabilitate U.S. image in Arab world?

At 2 a.m. EDT, three members of the Cresaptown, Md.-based unit -- Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick, Sgt. Javal S. Davis and Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr. -- were to be arraigned by a military judge. The arraignments had been initially scheduled for tomorrow but was moved up a day.

At 5 a.m. EDT, another member of the 372nd, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, was to appear at a special court-martial. Sivits is charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees; dereliction of duty for negligently failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty and maltreatment; and maltreatment of detainees.

Sivits, 24, of Hyndman, Bedford County, has evidently reached a plea bargain with military prosecutors. In exchange for a guilty plea and testifying against the others, Sivits is expected to receive a less than honorable discharge and possibly some jail time.

Sivits told military investigators that Graner, a prison guard at the State Correctional Institution Greene, and Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick II were ringleaders of the abuse, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times and others. In his statement, Sivits also told investigators:

Graner, 36, a Whitehall native who now lives in Uniontown, beat a wounded, handcuffed Iraqi detainee with a nightstick. Sivits also accused him of provoking a police dog to bite a detainee.

Frederick, 37, also a prison guard from Buckingham, Va., seemed "mellow" as he hit prisoners and watched other guards join in.

Davis, 26, of Maryland, jumped on the pile of men while they were handcuffed.

In a televised interview, Davis admitted to stepping on detainees' fingers and toes but denied injuring any of them.

At the arraignments, a military judge was to read the charges to the MPs, who then would enter a plea or defer entering one. They face general courts-martial, which have not been scheduled.

The three MPs are charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees; dereliction of duty for willfully failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty and maltreatment; and maltreatment of detainees.

Frederick and Graner also are charged with assaulting detainees and committing indecent acts.

Graner faces additional charges of adultery and obstruction of justice and Davis is also charged with providing a false official statement to a criminal investigator and assaulting detainees.

No determination has been made on whether three other charged MPs from the 372nd, all women, will face courts-martial.

Only one of them -- Spc. Megan Ambuhl, 29, of Centreville, Va. -- has had an Article 32 hearing, the equivalent of a preliminary hearing to determine if evidence warrants a court-martial. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is expected to decide by early summer if she should face a court-martial on charges of dereliction of duty and conspiracy.

Ambuhl's attorney, Harvey J. Volzer of Washington D.C., attended her hearing in Baghdad three weeks ago and persuaded authorities to drop two other charges. Volzer maintains that Ambuhl committed no abuse and is not visible in any of the widely publicized photographs that show some of the other accused MPs with naked prisoners, some placed in humiliating poses such as piled in pyramids, forced to masturbate or posed in positions feigning homosexual acts.

Article 32 hearings have not been held or scheduled yet for the other MPs, Pfc. Lynndie England and Spc. Sabrina Harman.

In his statements, Sivits said England, who was photographed smiling, smoking and pointing at naked detainees, was "laughing at the different stuff that they were having the detainees do."

He also said Harman, who was photographed next to a pyramid of naked men, was sometimes smiling, but "there was a few times she had a look of disgust on her face." He said these abuses occurred nightly without the knowledge of their superiors in the Army chain of command.

England, 21, of Fort Ashby, W.Va., is pregnant with Graner's child and is the only one of the seven charged MPs to have left Iraq. She is doing clerical work at Fort Bragg, N.C., while attorneys attempt to arrange her transfer to a military base closer to their offices in Denver.

Now notorious for a photo in which she is leading a naked, grimacing detainee on a leash, England is accused of assaulting Iraqi detainees on multiple occasions; conspiring with Graner to mistreat prisoners; committing an indecent act; and committing acts "prejudicial to good order and discipline and were of nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."

England's attorney, Rose Mary Zapor of Denver, has maintained that England was following orders from superiors and military intelligence officers to pose for the photographs. She denied Sivits' allegations about England, saying she believed Sivits said whatever military investigators wanted to hear in order to cut the best deal for himself.

Harman, 26, of Lorton, Va., was photographed with Graner behind the pyramid of naked Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid. She is accused of photographing that pyramid, jumping on detainees who lay in the pyramid and photographing and videotaping detainees who were ordered to strip and masturbate in front of others.

Harman is also charged with photographing and posing with a corpse; writing "rapeist" on a prisoner's leg; and attaching wires to a hooded prisoner's hands while he stood on a box with his head covered, then telling him he'd be electrocuted if he fell off, according to The Washington Post.

Harman told the Washington Post in an e-mail that her unit took direction from Army military intelligence officers, CIA operatives and civilian contractors. She did not say who specifically ordered such treatment.