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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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January 18th,
2010 - Iraqis Authorize Government to Sue Blackwater News article from the
Associated Press |
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Iraqis
Authorize Government to Sue Blackwater From the Associated Press January 18, 2010 Baghdad - Iraq's government has
started collecting signatures for a class-action lawsuit from victims who
were wounded or lost family in incidents involving the U.S. private security
firm formerly known as Blackwater. The head of the prime
minister's legal consultation office said Monday the government will seek
compensation for a string of incidents, including the 2007 killing of 17
civilians in Nisoor Square. The official, Fadhil
Mohammed Jawad, says there is no deadline to receive the authorizations. He
refused to give a date for the lawsuit. On Dec. 31, a U.S. federal
judge threw out criminal charges against the company, now known as Xe
Services, regarding the Nisoor Square killings, citing mistakes by
prosecutors. © 2010 The Associated Press. External link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_IRAQ_BLACKWATER Iraq mulls lodging
Blackwater complaint for citizens From Agence France Presse January 18, 2010 Baghdad - Baghdad said
Monday it is considering lodging a complaint against a security company in
the US after a judge dismissed charges the firm's guards killed Iraqi
civilians in an unprovoked attack. "Our efforts today are
designed to support your complaint, and if there are no complaints, Iraq's
government will bring the case on your behalf" before a US court,
government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told the victims' families. Fadel Mohammed Jawad, a
legal adviser of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said Iraq would seek
compensation for the families following the US judge's decision to drop the
charges on December 31. "The US federal judge
dismissed the way the evidence was presented, but not the trial on merit.
There hasn't been a decision on this matter," he told the families at a
meeting. The five guards, part of a
convoy of armoured vehicles, were accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in
September 2007 using guns and grenades in Baghdad's central Nisur Square.
Iraq says 17 people were killed. In his ruling, US federal
judge Ricardo Urbina found prosecutors violated the guards' rights by using
incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a US State
Department probe. But the admissibility of the
Iraqi government complaint is uncertain because all of the families except
one agreed damages from Blackwater, according to a lawyer injured in the
incident. The lawyer, Hassan Jabbar
Salman, said the families of those killed were offered 100,000 dollars and
those wounded received between 20,000 and 50,000 dollars from Blackwater,
which has since been renamed Xe. Copyright © 2010 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j3571uDnSa-5YIFEEkW2U1qv3jTw |