A US court martial convicted an army tank company commander today over the death of an Iraqi in a shooting which the soldier called a mercy killing of a wounded man.
Army Captain Rogelio Maynulet was found guilty at the hearing at a US army base in Wiesbaden, Germany on a charge of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter and faces up to ten years in prison.
He is to be sentenced tomorrow. Prosecutors had pressed for conviction on a more serious charge of assault with intent to commit murder that carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence.
The incident occurred last May when US troops were pursuing suspected militiamen supporting Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr near the Iraqi city of Najaf, the court was told.
US soldiers fired on a car, wounding the driver and a passenger.
Maynulet said he had shot dead the driver to put him out of his misery.
The jury was shown film footage of the shooting that had been captured by a US surveillance drone.
The mercy killing argument was used by the defence in the case of two US soldiers who were convicted separately in December and January of murdering an Iraqi. The man had suffered severe abdominal wounds and burns when US troops attacked a rubbish truck they suspected was being used by guerrillas.
Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne was sentenced to three years in jail and Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban to one year over the Iraqi's death. Local Iraqis said the men on the truck were innocent rubbish collectors.