US/Iraq

Blackwater guards to surrender for Iraq shooting

Article published on the 2008-12-08 Latest update 2008-12-08 10:36 TU

Iraqis are angered by the perceived impunity of American contractors operating in Iraq
(File Photo: Reuters)

Five American private security guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad were ordered by a Washington, DC, court Sunday to surrender themselves within 24 hours after they were indicted for manslaughter.

The men’s lawyers said that they are planning on turning themselves in on Monday in the state of Utah, where some of them live, in an attempt to have their case heard there, The New York Times reported.

The men, Evan Liberty, 26, Donald Ball, 26, Dustin Heard, 27, Nick Slatten, 25, and Paul Slough, 29 are all decorated war veterans who worked for the private security firm Blackwater, which was hired by the United States State Department to provide protection to diplomats in Iraq.

Ball's lawyer maintains his client’s innocence, claiming that the prosecution is politically motivated "to appease the Iraqi government," the Associated Press reported.

In September 2007, a Blackwater convoy in Baghdad, responding to a suicide bombing, entered a traffic-jammed intersection and opened fire, killing 17 people, including a number of children.

The men claim that they fired in self defense, but the FBI found that most of the deaths were unjustified after a 2007 investigation, which revealed Iraqi witness testimony that the guards opened fire without cause or warning.

The incident caused uproar in Iraq over the perception that US private security contractors work with impunity in Iraq.

US prosecutors can’t usually prosecute Americans for crimes committed overseas, and contractors are immune from prosecution in Iraq. In order to have the case heard, the US Justice Department will have to argue that Blackwater guards can be accused as military contractors, even though their company was hired by the State Department.

Prosecutors will also seek to apply a law that calls for a mandatory 30-year sentence for using machine guns to commit violent crime, the Associated Press reported.

The case is further complicated by a dispute over jurisdiction. The charges were filed in Washington, DC, but the men may argue that they should be tried in more conservative Utah, where some of them live.

Blackwater was allowed to repair the vehicles involved in the shooting before investigators could see them, removing key evidence from the prosecution’s case. But a sixth man, who pled guilty to manslaughter, has agreed to testify against his former colleagues.