Saddam Hussein's former jailer went on trial before a US court martial in Baghdad today charged with aiding the enemy, and accused of buying hair dye and cigars for the former Iraqi dictator.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele is accused of allowing prisoners access to an unmonitored mobile phone while he was the commanding officer of Camp Cropper, the maximum security military prison near Baghdad airport where Saddam was held until he was hanged in December.

He is also accused of allowing special privileges to detainees, including paying for a supply of hair dye and Cuban cigars for Saddam. He is further charged with failing to obey an order; and of carrying on an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter.

An army reservist from Prince George, Virginia, Lieutenant-Colonel Steele originally faced the death penalty if found guilty of the most serious charge, that of aiding the enemy, which is a capital offence under US military law.

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The maximum penalty he faces has however since been commuted to life imprisonment, after US military leaders decided to make it a non-capital case. He has been in custody in Kuwait since March.

As the trial began in a pine-panelled courtroom in Camp Liberty, a US base, the defence tried to obtain a motion to dismiss the charge of aiding the enemy, arguing that giving a mobile phone to detainees did not fall into the legal definition of supplying "arms, munitions, money and other things".

Lieutenant-Colonel Timothy Grammel, the presiding judge, denied the request, but said that the prosecution must prove that the detainees Lieutenant-Colonel Steele was helping qualifed as "enemies", and not as former enemies.

Prosecutors attempted to justify the charge, citing a speech by President Bush, but Lieutenant Colonel Grammel dismissed this as "vague". The prosecution will have other opportunities to make their case.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steele has already pleaded guilty to three charges, relating to the improper use of classified information and possession of pornography, each of which carries a potential sentence of two years, plus forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the Army.

An eighth charge, that he had an improper relationship with the daughter of a detainee, and a ninth, of misusing Government funds to buy treats for prisoners, were dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in June.

The alleged offences took place between October 2005 and February this year, starting when Lieutenant-Colonel Steele was commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper, and later when he was posted to nearby Camp Victory as senior patrol officer with the 89th Military Police Brigade

A witness at the hearing in June spoke of an occasion at Camp Cropper when Lieutenant-Colonel Steele used his service pistol to intimidate the guards in a prison tower. Brigadier General Kevin McBride added, however, that Camp Cropper was positively reviewed by the Red Cross while Lieutenant-Colonel Steele was in charge.

Special Agent John Nocella told the June hearing that Lieutenant-Colonel Steele had empathised with the senior detainees in his charge, who included Saddam and other senior figures from his regime. It has not been made clear which of them was allowed to use the mobile phone.

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