Court hears closing arguments in Iraq rape case
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A prosecutor told a U.S. military court
on Tuesday four soldiers should be court-martialled on charges
of murder and the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl because the
case had nothing to do with the strains of war.
“Murder, not war. Rape, not war. That’s what we’re here
talking about today. Not all that business about cold food,
checkpoints, personnel assignments,” the prosecutor, Captain
Alex Pickands, said as the court heard closing arguments.
“Cold food didn’t kill that family. Personnel assignments
didn’t rape and murder that 14-year-old little girl. They
gathered together over cards and booze and came up with a plan
to rape and murder that little girl.”
The case has outraged Iraqis and led Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops’ immunity from
prosecution under Iraqi law.
The article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a
grand jury — heard earlier how troops were “driven nuts” by
combat stress and how one of the accused burned a puppy.
Private First Class Justic Cross described how conditions
“pretty much crushed the platoon,” which lived in constant fear
of being killed in the Mahmudiya area south of Baghdad where
the rape and murders took place in March.
“It drives you nuts. You feel like every step you might get
blown up. You just hit a point where you’re like, ‘If I die
today, I die’. You’re just walking a death walk,” he said.
On Monday, the court at a U.S. base known as Camp Liberty
heard graphic testimony of how three of the soldiers took turns
raping 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi before murdering
her and her family.
“TRIANGLE OF DEATH”
Mahmudiya is part of what Iraqis call the “Triangle of
Death” because of frequent attacks by insurgents.
Private First Class Jesse Spielman, 21, Specialist James
Barker, 23, Sergeant Paul Cortez, 23, and Private First Class
Bryan Howard, 19, face charges of rape and murder among others.
If court-martialled after the Article 32 hearing and found
guilty, they could face the death penalty. The hearing began on
Sunday and is expected to last several days.
Private Steven Green, 21, faces the same charges in a U.S.
federal court in Kentucky, home of the 502nd Infantry Regiment,
his former unit. Green, who has pleaded not guilty, was
discharged from the army for a “personality disorder.”
Asked by a defense attorney if it was possible Green
committed the rape and murders on his own, Cross said: “Green
does nothing by himself.”
Staff Sergeant Eric Lauzier, squad leader for the accused
soldiers, said Green often said he wanted to kill Iraqis.
During the testimony, soldiers spoke of how Green threw a
puppy off the roof of a building and then set it on fire.
Captain John Goodwin, the company commander, said Green was
a “troubled soldier” who had “some serious anger issues.”
Cross told the hearing how soldiers took Iraqi cough syrup
which “makes you feel high” to relieve stress. “Everybody was
very depressed. It was (an) outlet to release,” he said.
An Iraqi army medic told the hearing on Sunday he entered
the Iraqi family’s house and found the body of the girl naked
and burned from the waist up, with a single bullet wound
beneath her left eye.
A fifth soldier, Sergeant Anthony Yribe, is charged with
dereliction of duty and making a false statement.
“She was young and attractive. They knew where she was
because they had seen her on a previous patrol. She was close.
She was vulnerable,” said Pickands.
David Sheldon, a civilian lawyer for Barker, focused on
Green in his closing argument.
“When you put an individual like that in a stressful
situation, he becomes a canister of gas waiting to explode,”
said Sheldon. “There was no meeting of the minds. That was a
plan that Green executed and the soldiers are not responsible.”
The hearing was adjourned.