The first witness in the trial of Navy SEAL Matthew McCabe gave his testimony on Tuesday. The witness, whose name has been withheld by the media on orders of the court, is a former U.S. base commander. He testified that he issued guidelines before the alleged assault that expressly prohibited abuse of prisoners, according to a report on Fox News.

The anti-abuse edict was described by the former commander as a “very important document,” although he said that he was not sure that all the men in the U.S. base had been able to read it by September last year, when the assault allegedly occurred.

Defense Attorney Neal Puckett opened by saying that “evidence will show the SEALs did something they are trained to do—go get someone and bring them back, essentially serving an arrest warrant,” and stressed that no assault had occurred. The allegations brought forth by Abed is being dismissed as a ploy to discredit Americans, as it has been revealed that an alleged terrorist training manual called for “brothers” to accuse their captors or guards of abuse once they were captured. As for the prisoner’s alleged injuries, Puckett claimed that this may have been self-inflicted.

Another testimony was heard by the jury, composed of 4 officers and 3 enlisted personnel. An audio tape of Abed was played for the jury, where he described the alleged assault that he went through in the hands of McCabe. The defense had requested for another interpreter to review the transcript of the initial testimony, citing discrepancies; this has been granted by the judge.