Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Charges dropped against seven British soldiers accused of murdering Iraqi civilian
COLCHESTER, England - (AP) The judge at a court-martial
dismissed murder charges against seven soldiers accused of killing an Iraqi
civilian, ruling on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence to
proceed.
The seven soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment,
had faced a court-martial in connection with the death of Nadhem Abdullah on
May 11, 2003, in Al U'Zayra in southern Iraq.
The prosecuting attorney, Martin Heslop, had told the court that
Abdullah was an innocent teenager who died after a gratuitously violent
attack in which he was beaten with rifle butts, helmets, fists and feet.
But Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett said: "after discarding the
evidence that is too inherently weak or vague for any sensible person to
rely on it, prosecution evidence taken at its highest is such that a
reasonable jury or court martial board properly directed could never reach
the high standard of proof required to be sure of the guilt of any
defendant."
COLCHESTER, England - (AP) The judge at a court-martial
dismissed murder charges against seven soldiers accused of killing an Iraqi
civilian, ruling on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence to
proceed.
The seven soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment,
had faced a court-martial in connection with the death of Nadhem Abdullah on
May 11, 2003, in Al U'Zayra in southern Iraq.
The prosecuting attorney, Martin Heslop, had told the court that
Abdullah was an innocent teenager who died after a gratuitously violent
attack in which he was beaten with rifle butts, helmets, fists and feet.
But Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett said: "after discarding the
evidence that is too inherently weak or vague for any sensible person to
rely on it, prosecution evidence taken at its highest is such that a
reasonable jury or court martial board properly directed could never reach
the high standard of proof required to be sure of the guilt of any
defendant."