US officer tried over Iraqi death

The court-martial of a US officer charged with murdering an Iraqi general who was being held in custody has begun in Colorado.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr denies murdering Maj-Gen Abed Hamed Mowhoush in 2003.

Prosecutors say Mowhoush was bound, placed headfirst in a sleeping bag and died with an officer sitting on him.

The trial opened with a military judge rejecting a defence lawyer's request to dismiss the case.

The trial is expected to last a week.

It is one of a number of deaths of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan that the US military is investigating.

'Asphyxiated'

Defence lawyers called a witness who claimed he had overheard a juror coming under pressure from a senior officer, and applied for the case to be dismissed because of "unlawful command influence".

But the judge rejected the request.

It is thought the defence may cite reports, published in the Washington Post newspaper, that said the general had been assaulted by CIA-sponsored Iraqi paramilitaries two days before his death.

Mowhoush died while being held at al-Qaim in Iraq, near the Syrian border.

A death certificate published by the Pentagon gave the cause as asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression.

The murder charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole.