BRITAIN: The court martial of seven paratroopers accused of murdering an Iraqi teenager collapsed yesterday when the judge criticised the military inquiry and said some Iraqi witnesses were seekers of "blood money".
After a trial lasting nine weeks and costing £3-£8 million, not guilty verdicts were recorded at the hearing in Colchester, England, against the patrol from the 3rd battalion the Parachute Regiment.
The prosecution had alleged the men entered the village of al-Ferkah, 60 miles north of Basra, in May 2003 and carried out an unprovoked and unjustified attack on civilians which led to the death of Nadhem Abdullah (18).
But after defence submissions that there was no case to answer, Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett stopped the case on the grounds of insufficient evidence. It could not be shown that there was a premeditated plan, he stated. One of the accused, Pte Scott Jackson, could not even be proved to have been at the scene.
"There is simply insufficient evidence which would enable the board. . . to conclude that those members of the patrol not engaged in an assault on Nadhem could have been part of a joint enterprise to murder or commit violent disorder," the judge said.
"Since. . . the prosecution cannot identify any single defendant who applied unlawful force, then there is no case against any of the defendants. . . Therefore I will direct the board that they find all seven defendants not guilty of both charges [ murder and violent disorder]." All seven men - Cpl Scott Evans, and Ptes Billy Nerney, Samuel May, Morne Vosloo, Daniel Harding, Roberto Di-Gregorio, and Scott Jackson - were in court to hear the decision.
They had denied the charges and declined to comment after the case. Mr Harding, Mr Di-Gregorio and Mr Jackson have left the army but were deemed to be serving for the purposes of the court martial.
The court had heard that Nadhem Abdullah suffered severe bruises to his head, lapsed into semi-consciousness and was taken to hospital for treatment. He was being transferred to Basra when he died on the road the day after the incident.
In his ruling, Judge Blackett accepted there might be "sufficient evidence, when taken at its highest, for a court martial board [ or jury panel], properly directed, to conclude that" Nadhem Abdullah died as a result of an "assault carried out by Cpl Evans's section". - (Guardian service)
Al-Qaeda in Iraq said yesterday it had put on trial two Moroccan embassy employees it was holding and sentenced them to death because of their country's support for the US-backed Baghdad government. In Rabat, Morocco's foreign ministry denounced the statement, posted on the internet, as "barbarous" and "contrary to Islam's precepts and the fundamental values of humanity". The al-Qaeda group said on Tuesday it would put the two Moroccans, Abderrahim Boualam and Abdelkrim El Mouhafidim, on trial. The two were seized late last month.