Rising Hegemon
An American army platoon leader who ordered his troops to throw two Iraqi prisoners into the Tigris river was sentenced yesterday to 45 days in military prison and given a $12,000 (£6,200) fine.
Lieutenant Jack Saville, 25, pleaded guilty to assault and dereliction of duty, at Fort Hood, in Texas, for ordering his troops to force two Iraqis into the river in January last year - one of the men was feared to have drowned, though his body was never found.
Marwan Fadil and his cousin Zaidoun Hassoun were out after curfew in Samarra, 62 miles north of Baghdad, when the incident happened.
During an earlier trial Mr Fadil testified that Mr Hassoun had been killed but this was denied by other US soldiers who said his death had been faked.
The fact that Mr Hassoun's body was never found made it difficult for Lt Saville to be charged with manslaughter.
Lt Saville, a West Point graduate, is one of the first officers to be tried for abuse following a series of courts martial of relatively lowly troops and reservists in the Abu Ghraib scandal and other cases. He pleaded guilty to assault and dereliction of duty under a deal reached with army prosecutors.
He was also convicted of a lesser assault in another abuse case in the town of Balad in December 2003.
In return for the light sentence, Lt Saville agreed to testify against his captain, who had given him a hit list of five Iraqis who were to be executed on the spot if they were captured in a raid. In January, Lt Saville's co-defendant, Sergeant Tracy Perkins, was convicted of assault and sentenced to six months in prison.
Lt Saville apologised to both men in a prepared statement. He also pleaded to be allowed to stay on in the military, saying his career was his life.
As opposed to the dead Iraqi who pleaded that his LIFE was his LIFE!
This is pathetic. Those convicted of OWI's get more jail time than this.
Freedom is marching off a short pier apparently.
No comments:
Post a Comment