BAGHDAD, June 14 (Reuters) - A former commander of a U.S. detention centre holding officials loyal to Saddam Hussein will face a general court-martial on charges that include aiding the enemy, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele, former commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment, was investigated on nine charges, including aiding the enemy by providing an unmonitored cell phone to a detainee.

Steele was in charge of detention facilities at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad international airport, where insurgents and former senior aides to Saddam are held.

Saddam spent some of his final days there before he was executed in December for crimes against humanity.

Steele, detained in Kuwait in April, is also accused of having an improper relationship with a translator, providing unmonitored mobile phones to prisoners, unauthorised possession of classified information and keeping pornographic videos.

"The charges do not represent a finding of guilt. Lt. Col. Steele is presumed not guilty," the military said in announcing that an investigation last month had recommended he face a general court-martial.

Another charge of fraternising with a detainee's daughter was not included in the court-martial referral released by the U.S. military.

While the charge of aiding the enemy can carry a death sentence, U.S. military officials have said the maximum penalty Steele would likely face if convicted would be a life sentence.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between October 2005 and February 2007.

The military's investigation of the charges was held at the main U.S. military base north of Baghdad in late April and early May.

Steele is the highest-ranking U.S. officer to face a charge of aiding the enemy since Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, was charged in September 2003 with mutiny, sedition, aiding the enemy, adultery and possession of pronography. The army eventually dropped Yee's case.

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