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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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January 19th,
2010 - No Misconduct Found in Blackwater Case News article from the Associated
Press |
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No Misconduct Found in
Blackwater Case From the Associated Press January 19, 2010 Washington - A federal judge
has opted not to impose a finding of prosecutorial misconduct on Justice
Department lawyers for their handling of a case against Blackwater security
guards involved in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad. In Federal District Court
here last month, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina threw out all charges against the
five involved in the shootings, which left 17 Iraqis dead and about 20
wounded. In that decision, Judge
Urbina wrote that in a “reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional
rights,” investigators, prosecutors and government witnesses had
inappropriately relied on statements the guards had been compelled to make in
debriefings by the State Department shortly after the shootings. The State
Department had hired the guards to protect its officials. But in a ruling on Tuesday,
Judge Urbina said he would not take what he called the “extreme” step of
prohibiting prosecutors from reviving the case. Had Judge Urbina ruled that
prosecutors committed misconduct, it could have set off an internal Justice
Department investigation and led to sanctions against the prosecutors. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/us/20blackwater.html Prosecutors Can Seek New
Indictment in Blackwater Case By Joe Palazzolo Main Justice January 19, 2010 Prosecutors can seek a new
indictment against former Blackwater guards accused in a 2007 shooting that
left more than 30 Iraqis injured or dead, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Judge Ricardo Urbina of the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia threw out manslaughter and
gun charges against five former guards late last month, finding that
prosecutors used immunized statements to build their case. Before Urbina jettisoned the
charges, the government filed a motion to dismiss its case against Nicholas
Slatten, conceding it had used tainted evidence against him but reserving the
right to pursue new charges. He and another former guard,
Donald Ball, subsequently asked Urbina to dismiss the indictment with
prejudice, arguing that prosecutors engaged in misconduct and that the
government would be unable to build another case without resorting, again, to
tainted evidence The men accused prosecutors
of holding back evidence from a grand jury, misrepresenting their case to the
court and making public comments about the case that prejudiced the guards. In a 12-page opinion, Urbina
said it was not his place to opine on whether the government had enough
evidence to seek a new indictment. And while the judge agreed that
prosecutors acted with “disregard,” the misconduct was not so severe as to
bar the government from investigating the men in the future, he said. “The court is not persuaded
that the additional, extreme sanction of dismissal with prejudice is
justified under these circumstances,” Urbina wrote. The charges against the
Blackwater guards arose from an incident in Baghdad’s crowded Nisur Square,
in which more than 30 Iraqi civilians were killed or wounded. The Blackwater
guards, who were contracted to provide security for U.S. government employees
in Iraq, claimed they had fired in self defense after an attack by
insurgents. But the government said the guards fired without provocation. The Justice Department has
not said whether it will appeal Urbina’s Dec. 31 ruling dismissing the
indictment. External link: http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/01/19/prsoecutors-can-seek-new-indictment-in-blackwater-case/ |