Ex-Blackwater Guard Sentenced to Life in Prison for Baghdad Massacre

Former Blackwater guard Nicholas Slatten has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2007 shooting of 14 Iraqi civilians.

Slatten and three other men were convicted last October after a lengthy legal battle. Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, and Paul Slough, were all found guilty on firearms-related charges, while Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder.

The incident, which took place at Nisoor Square in downtown Baghdad, sparked international outrage. An investigation by the Iraqi government found that the attack – which killed 17 – was unprovoked. A subsequent investigation by the FBI found that 14 of those killed were shot unjustifiably.

Prosecutors stressed this during their sentencing arguments.

"By imposing substantial sentences, this court would hold the defendants accountable for their callous, wanton and deadly conduct, and deter others wielding the awesome power over life or death from perpetuating similar atrocities in the future," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

Defense attorneys insisted the four men had panicked after coming under insurgent gunfire, saying they were "aware of no other case in which the government has prosecuted government security contractors for conduct undertaken in self-defense in a war zone, much less for having used weaponry of a particular magnitude, when the weaponry was issued by the United States government for official use."

Now that sentencing has been decided, defense attorneys are likely to begin filing appeals, on the basis of a number of legal issues, most notably, whether the Justice Department even had the authority to bring charges against the guards.

The defendants, all providing security detail through the defense contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater, were in Iraq to protect US diplomats. Defense lawyers have argued that since the guards were not being used in a military capacity, they could not be charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.

New witness testimony could also form the basis for appeals. After defense attorneys requested a delay in sentencing based on new witness testimony, a federal judge struck down that request on Friday. Judge Royce Lamberth said that the defendants could file a motion for a new trial "at a later date."

The decision comes as a strong signal from the Justice Department that it will not tolerate defense contractors who believe they can act outside of the law while operating on foreign soil.
  http://sptnkne.ws/dmP
13/4/15
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Four former employees of the US security company Blackwater have been convicted of almost every charge related to the shootings of more than 30 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad seven years ago. The jury in Washington found Nicholas Slatten guilty of first-degree murder, and the three other ex-security guards - Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard - were convicted on Wednesday of committing multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007.
The trial focused on the killings of 14 Iraqis and the wounding of 17 others. The shootings, which came in the fourth year of the US military invasion of the country, triggered an international uproar over the role of defence contractors, who were hired by the US State Department to protect American diplomats in the Middle Eastern country.  The four men were charged with a combined 33 counts in the shootings and the jury is expected to continue deliberating on the other counts. However, Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, noted that "even though the men were convicted, the sentencing has not yet been settled". "They [convicts] plan to appeal the verdicts," she said.  "The end of the legal saga is not yet in sight."
Legal battles The case was mired in legal battles for years, making it uncertain whether the defendants would ever be tried. There was sharp disagreement over the facts in the case.  The defendants' lawyers said there was strong evidence the guards were targeted with gunfire from fighters and Iraqi police, leading the Blackwater employees to shoot back in self-defence.  However, federal prosecutors said there was no incoming gunfire and that the shootings by the guards were unprovoked. One of the government witnesses in the case, Blackwater guard Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed Iraqi mother sitting in the passenger seat of a car driven by her son.
   Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
  22/10/14