Danish abusers go free

Five Danes, a Danish army captain and four military police sergeants have been found guilty of abusing prisoners while they were based in southern Iraq. However the judge ruled that there should be no punishment because there were "extenuating circumstances". What were these extenuating circumstances?

Apparently these trained officers had not received clear guidelines from the Danish military. Apparently in the absence of such guidelines they were unable to exercise due restraint when dealing with prisoners, even with witnesses present. Trained officers who do not know that they are bound, not only by the Geneva Convention, but also by human decency, to refrain from torturing prisoners??? Would the Danish court have reacted differently if these had been Danish prisoners?

Although they would not face disciplinary action, the captain - a woman - Annemette Hommel (AP photo), said that that she thought "the court had adopted an unnecessarily hard line". Imagine that. In her own words (note that she has not denied that the incidents occurred), she "did not do anything wrong". In the face of such a wanton display of lack of empathy or sensitivity then I would guess that the Danish authorities called her home before her tour of duty ended in order to save her life, because had this got widespread publicity while she was still in Iraq then I doubt that she would have survived for very long.