Army specialist Charles Graner was punished "for something he was told to do," his mother Irma Graner told reporters as he was led away from the military courtroom in hand and leg shackles.

"You know its the higher-ups that should be on trial ... they let the little guys take the fall for them," Irma Graner said outside the courtroom at the Fort Hood army base in Texas.

A military jury Saturday sentenced Graner to 10 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge from the army, after convicting him of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison near Baghdad, Iraq.

Graner, 36, was found guilty of five charges, which included conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and indecent acts, by a jury consisting of six enlisted soldiers and four officers at Fort Hood.

But Graner's civilian attorneys said his client was being made a scapegoat, and said the officials who issued the orders are the ones who should be put on trial.

Graner was the first of several soldiers to be tried on charges arising from the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, which sparked international outrage when photographs were released in late Aprillast year.