A US military court sitting in Baghdad Saturday sentenced Specialist Armin Cruz of the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion to eight months in prison in connection with abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib. Cruz had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of maltreating prisoners and conspiring with others to maltreat them. Among other things, he is said to have forced Iraqi detainees to strip and crawl on the floor. Cruz was also reduced in rank and given a bad-conduct discharge. He was the first military intelligence officer to be court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal; his name was recently mentioned in an Army report on the Abu Ghraib abuses [PDF] issued by US Army Major General George Fay. Reuters has more.

UPDATE: An official military press release on Cruz's plea and sentencing is now available here from Multi-National Force Iraq.