Topic: Hearing dates set for Marines accused of Iraqi murder

Team Infidel

Media:The Associated Press
Byline: n/a
Date:08 August 2006

SAN DIEGO_The Marine Corps has set a provisional timetable to prosecute
seven Marines and a sailor charged with kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi
civilian.

The charges against the eight, who are all held in the brig at Camp
Pendleton, California, will be considered at an Article 32 hearing, which is
similar to a grand jury proceeding.

The first hearing has been set for Aug. 28 where only one Marine's case
would be heard, said Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gibson on Monday. The other cases
would be presented at separate hearings on Sept. 25 and Oct. 18.

"These are dates that have been tentatively agreed to," Gibson said.

A commanding officer will determine at the hearings if there is probable
cause to bring the defendants to trial.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents claim that on April 26, without
provocation, the troops went into the rural Iraqi town of Hamdania, took
52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home, tied him up, put him in a
hole and shot him.

After the killing, the troops placed an AK-47 in Awad's hands and put a
shovel in the hole to make it appear Awad was an insurgent planting
explosives, investigators said.

The defendants could face the death penalty if convicted.

About a dozen Marines from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine
Regiment are under investigation for a separate incident that occurred in
November in the town of Haditha, where 24 Iraqi civilians were killed.

__________________