Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who led the attack, faces no more than three months in confinement after admitting the least serious of three charges – negligent dereliction of duty. He had initially been implicated in 19 of the deaths. Among the victims were seven children and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair.
International
No Jail Time For Marine at Center of Iraq Haditha Massacre
It was the massacre which left 24 unarmed Iraqis dead and cast fresh shame on the American military, already reeling from Abu-Ghraib.
But a military judge yesterday ruled that the final U.S. soldier to face charges over the notorious assault on Haditha will not be jailed.
Instead, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who led the attack, faces no more than three months in confinement after admitting the least serious of three charges – negligent dereliction of duty.
He had initially been implicated in 19 of the deaths. Among the victims were seven children and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair.
…
Wuterich added that his guilty plea should not suggest that he believed his men behaved badly or that they acted in any way that was dishonourable to their country.
The judge’s ruling, which took place in a court at Camp Pendleton, California, will now got the Marine Corps Forces Central Command for approval.
But the decision has already sparked shock in Haditha, the Euphrates river town which was left devastated after the events of November 19, 2005.
A survivor of the killings, Awis Fahmi Hussein, showed his scars from being hit by a bullet in the back.
Mr Hussein said: ‘I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison and that he would appear and confess in front of the whole world that he committed this crime, so that America could show itself as democratic and fair’.
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