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August 21st,
2008 - Opening Statements Begin in Fallujah Case News article by the Associated
Press |
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Opening Statements
Begin in Fallujah Case By Chelsea J. Carter Associated Press August 21, 2008 Riverside, Calif. - A former
Marine charged with killing unarmed detainees in Iraq did what he did to save
his comrades, his attorney said Thursday as opening statements in the
defendant's first-of-its-kind federal trial began. Jose Luis Nazario Jr. is the
first civilian to be tried under a federal law that allows the prosecution of
former military service members for war crimes. Prosecutor Charles Kovats
described Nazario as a man who killed "unarmed, submissive, docile"
detainees and encouraged men under his charge to do the same thing. "He shot and killed,
and he had his subordinate Marines shoot and kill," Kovats said in his
opening statement. Defense attorney Kevin
McDermott countered that Nazario killed insurgents to save his comrades in a
city where every resident was looking for a fight. "Almost immediately,
the rules of engagement were thrown out," McDermott told jurors.
"The insurgents don't play by the rules of engagement." Nazario, 28, of Riverside,
is charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter on suspicion of killing
or causing others to kill four unarmed detainees in November 2004 in Fallujah
during some of the fiercest fighting of the war. He also faces one count of
assault with a deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm during a
crime of violence. He has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted of all the charges, he could face more than 10 years in prison. In Iraq, Nazario was a
sergeant and squad leader commanding 10 men. He went to work for the
Riverside Police Department after leaving the military. The case has drawn national
attention with the prosecution's use of the Military Extraterritorial
Jurisdiction Act, a law written in 2000 and amended in 2004 primarily to
allow the prosecution of civilian contractors who commit crimes while working
for the U.S. overseas. But it also allows for
military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes
outside the United States to be brought to trial. McDermott told jurors they
would be the first civilians to sit in judgment about actions in combat. "What the government is
asking you to do is to dictate to every young man" in uniform, he said.
"You'd better be right, you'd better be absolutely certain, or we are
going to second-guess you." The case came to light in
2006, when Nazario's former squadmate Sgt. Ryan Weemer volunteered details to
a U.S. Secret Service job interviewer during a lie-detector screening that
included a question about the most serious crime he ever committed. Kovats told the jury that
Nazario and his Marines were under orders to move into Fallujah and clear it
of insurgents on Nov. 9, 2004 - the opening day of the battle for the city. "The fighting was
brutal," he said. Within hours, one of
Nazario's squad members was killed. Two hours later, the Marines entered a
house and found four men sitting on the floor - "unarmed, unresisting,
with their arms up," the prosecutor said. Kovats said Marines would
testify during the trial that Nazario asked for help to kill the four men.
One Marine who saw the bodies will testify that three were shot in the head
and one in the chest, he said. McDermott described the
events leading to the battle of Fallujah, including bodies of private
security contractors burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. "The defense is here to
tell you the acts that the government described did not occur as described
here," he said. Weemer, of Hindsboro, Ill.,
was ordered this month to stand trial in military court on charges of
unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the killing of an unarmed
detainee in Fallujah. He has pleaded not guilty. According to a Naval
Criminal Investigative Service criminal complaint, several Marines allege
Nazario shot two Iraqi men who had been detained while his squad searched a
house. The complaint claims four
Iraqi men were killed during the action. It is unclear what, if
anything, Marines being subpoenaed to testify will say about the events in
the house in Fallujah. Another Marine, Sgt.
Jermaine Nelson, 26, of New York, is slated to be court-martialed in December
on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty for his role in
the deaths. Although he has not entered a plea in military court, Nelson's attorney
has said his client is innocent. Nelson and Weemer were
jailed in June for contempt of court for refusing to testify against Nazario
before a federal grand jury believed to be investigating the case. Both were
released July 3 and returned to Camp Pendleton. The judge ordered both to
appear in court Friday and disclose whether they will testify. They could be
jailed if they don't testify. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJBGkERPk8ZiV1rYMiNrLa2yvSpgD92MVHCG0 Landmark case
against Marine in Iraq detainee death opens By Agence France Presse August 21, 2008 Riverside, California - A
former US Marine ignored clear rules for handling prisoners and ordered the
killing of four unarmed Iraqis during 2004 fighting in Fallujah, prosecutors
told a court here Thursday. Jose Nazario, 28,
disregarded US Marine Corps training that prisoners must be protected at all
times, shooting dead two of the captives himself before ordering two
subordinates to kill the others, prosecutors said. The allegations came in
opening statements of a trial that has made US legal history. It is the first
time that a military veteran has been tried by a civilian jury for actions
that occurred during combat. Nazario, who had left the
Marines by the time he was arrested last year, denies charges of voluntary
manslaughter, assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm
during a crime of violence. US attorney Charles Kovats
said Nazario, a former Marine Corps sergeant, shot dead the detainees during
house-to-house searches conducted as part of "Operation Phantom
Fury" in Fallujah on November 9, 2004. "They were unarmed,
they were un-resisting, they had their hands up," Kovats told a jury of
nine women and three men. "But rather than take
them prisoner as he was trained to do, he shot and killed two of the men and
ordered his subordinates to kill two more of them," Kovats said. Kovats said all Marines
received training in the laws of war during boot camp, which included two key
rules, to "allow people to surrender, and not to kill or torture
detainees." In witness testimony Thursday,
a military instructor told the court Marines deployed to Iraq had been told
the necessity of following the laws of war in order to occupy "the moral
high ground." "We set the standard
that in order to win we must set the moral high ground," Major Dan
Schmidt said. "We must be the good guys. You're either a professional
warrior or you're just a brawler on the streets." Two other Marines involved
in the alleged killings, Ryan Weemer and Jermaine Nelson, have since been
charged with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty and face courts
martial. Both Weemer and Nelson have
been granted immunity to testify at the trial. They refused to do so during a
grand jury hearing for Nazario and were held in contempt. Weemer and Nelson
are due to testify on Friday. The case came to light after
Weemer, 25, underwent a background screening for a job in the US Secret
Service in 2006. Asked if he had ever taken
part in an unjustified killing, Weemer told his interviewer: "That
actually did happen, to be honest." The revelation triggered an
investigation by the US Naval Criminal Intelligence Service which saw
Nazario's squad mates questioned. Lawyers for Nazario have
said the case will set a dangerous precedent by allowing jurors with no
military background to pass judgment on decisions taken during the heat of
battle. If Nazario is convicted, it
could lead to hesitation among troops, putting themselves and fellow soldiers
at risk, his defense argued. Nazario's defense lawyer
Kevin McDermott told jurors they were hearing a case of "historic
importance." He said when Marines rolled
into Fallujah for a bloody, climactic battle with insurgents in 2004, they
were operating against an enemy who doesn't "play fair, who didn't have
rules." "The insurgents had one
ploy in mind from the beginning. To kill as many Marines as possible,"
McDermott said. The fierce nature of the
fighting in Fallujah forced Marines to "toss out" prior rules of
engagement as soon as they entered the city," McDermott said, adding
that there was not a shred of physical evidence against Nazario. "The government is
attempting to make you convict a man when they have no physical evidence of a
crime," McDermott said. "They won't even be able to tell you who
the victims were. They have no identity, no fingerprints, no DNA." Copyright © 2008 AFP. External link: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcwIH5UViTtSuZ4Udr9Su77DNmUg |