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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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September 5th,
2007 - Former Marine Indicted in Iraq Detainee Deaths |
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Former Marine Indicted
in Iraq Detainee Deaths By Sonja Bjelland Riverside Press-Enterprise September 5, 2007 A federal grand jury has
indicted an Iraq war veteran and former Riverside police officer accused of
killing two unarmed detainees while on duty in Fallujah. The indictment comes as the
next step in the federal case against Jose Luis Nazario Jr., a former Marine.
He and another Marine are accused in the deaths of detainees in November
2004, when U.S. and Iraqi military forces were attempting to clear the city
of insurgents. Nazario is being charged in
federal court rather than a military court because he is no longer in the
armed forces, according to the indictment. He was discharged Oct. 11, 2005,
the indictment said. After leaving the military,
Nazario joined the Riverside Police Department. He was still a probationary
officer when the department let him go the day he was arrested. The same week that federal
charges were filed against Nazario, Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was charged
in military court with murder of an unknown foreign national. The investigation involved
the same company of Camp Pendleton Marines accused in the killings of 24
civilians in Haditha, Iraq, on Nov. 19, 2005. Murder charges remain against
two Marines in that case, according to The Associated Press. The grand jury indictment
against Nazario, filed late Tuesday, listed two counts of voluntary
manslaughter. He is scheduled to return to
federal court in Riverside on Wednesday to enter a plea. He remains out of
custody on $50,000 bond. He has previously said he is innocent of the
allegations. Douglas Applegate, one of
Nazario's attorneys, said he had not seen the indictment. He said the case
would be interesting because a civilian court would be asked to rule on
"what occurred in a combat firefight three years ago -- presumably
without any physical evidence." Last month, a Naval Criminal
Investigative Service agent filed an affidavit and criminal complaint in
federal court that included witnesses saying that Nazario either killed the
insurgents or ordered their deaths. The witnesses' names were not released. According to witness
statements in federal court documents, Nazario's squad searched a home on
Nov. 9, 2004, because people in the home had been shooting at Marines. They
detained four insurgents and found AK-47 rifles and ammunition, according to
the affidavit. During a radio conversation
with a superior, Nazario said the four insurgents were not dead. He was told
to "make it happen," and all four detainees were shot to death, the
documents stated. External link: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_nazario06.3fdc13d.html |