Troops charged with murdering Iraqi civilian

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military will charge seven
Marines and a Navy corpsman with murder and other crimes in the
April 26 killing of an Iraqi civilian in a village west of
Baghdad, a defense official said on Wednesday.

The charges include murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, making
false official statements and larceny, said the official,
speaking on condition of anonymity because the charges have not
yet been announced.

The incident took place in the town of Hamdania in central
Iraq, and is a separate case from the November 19 killing of 24
civilians in Haditha in which other Marines are suspected.

Military criminal investigators examined whether the
servicemen fatally shot a 52-year-old disabled Iraqi man in the
face, then planted a rifle and a shovel next to his body to
make it appear he was an insurgent placing a roadside bomb.

In a development in a separate case, the military said a
fourth Army soldier, Spc. Juston Graber, has been charged with
premeditated murder in connection with the shooting deaths of
three detainees in Iraq on May 9. The military had said on
Monday three other soldiers were charged in the same killings
and with threatening to kill a fellow soldier if he told
authorities the truth about the case.

All four soldiers face a possible death penalty.

The eight troops have been held in pretrial confinement at
the Camp Pendleton prison in California since May 24. The
Marines plan to hold a news conference at Camp Pendleton at 4
p.m. to announce the charges.

This marks the latest case of misconduct by U.S. troops in
Iraq, although military leaders maintain that the vast majority
of American troops have conducted themselves honorably.

Joseph Casas, a defense lawyer representing one of the
Marines being charged, said his client is innocent and that
military investigators used inappropriate methods to obtain
statements from the troops in the case.

Casas, who represents Pfc. John Jodka, said the statements
were not “confessions,” and that he will seek to have the
statements suppressed at the trial.

“I can tell you with regard to my client, he was subjected
to at least three interrogations, one of which lasted about
eight hours without any food, water, restroom breaks, you name
it,” Casas said.

‘MAGNIFYING GLASS’

“The way that they obtained these statements is something
that’s going to be under our magnifying glass throughout this
trial,” Casas said.

The military held the eight suspects in “maximum” custody
for three weeks, officials at the base said. They were
restrained with handcuffs attached to a leather belt and leg
cuffs any time they left their cells. Authorities slightly
loosened the conditions last week to enable them to have no
such restraints while inside jail, the base said.

Jane Siegel, another lawyer representing Jodka, said
interrogators used “strong-arm” tactics and threats of life
imprisonment to elicit statements from the eight men.

“The techniques that they used to acquire these statements
are as close to old-fashioned psychological rubber hoses as you
can get,” Siegel said.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, responsible for
criminal cases involving Marine and Navy personnel, conducted
the investigation of the incident.

The military said in a statement last month that “local
Iraqis” brought the incident to the attention of Marine Corps
leaders at a meeting on May 1.

The Washington Post has reported the slain man was Hashim
Ibrahim Awad al-Zobaie, and he was known in his village as
“Hashim the Lame” because he had a metal bar surgically
inserted into one leg several years ago.

(Additional reporting by Kristin Roberts)