La pressa collegata

Un caporale marino che testimonia nei fanti di marina detti un court-martial nella sua unità ha cominciato ordinariamente a battere gli Iracheni dopo che gli ufficiali li ordinassero “a gomito sul livello di violenza.„

Completo. Saul H. Lopezromo ha testimoniato sabato alla prova di omicidio di completo. Trent D. Thomas.

“Ci siamo detti a per a gomito sul livello di violenza,„ ha detto Lopezromo, testimoniante per la difesa.

Quando un juror ha chiesto ulteriore spiegazione, Lopezromo ha detto: “Abbiamo battuto la gente, signore.„

Nelle settimane presunto di scolded, sette fanti di marina e un corpsman del blu marino hanno uscito in ritardo una notte per trovare ed uccidere un insurgent ritenuto sospetto nel villaggio di Hamandiya vicino alla prigione di Abu Ghraib. The Marines and corpsman were from 2nd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment.

Lopezromo said the suspected insurgent was known to his neighbors as the “prince of jihad,” and had been arrested several times and later released by the Iraqi legal system.

Unable to find him, the Marines and corpsman dragged another man from his house, fatally shot him, and then planted an AK-47 assault rifle near the body to make it appear he had been killed in a shootout, according to court testimony.

Four Marines and the corpsman, initially charged with murder in the April 2006 killing, have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and been given jail sentences ranging from 10 months to eight years. Thomas, 25, from St. Louis, pleaded guilty but withdrew his plea and is the first defendant to go to court-martial.

Lopezromo, who was not part of the squad on its late-night mission, said he saw nothing wrong with what Thomas did.

“I don’t see it as an execution, sir,” he told the judge. “I see it as killing the enemy.”

He said Marines consider all Iraqi men part of the insurgency.

Lopezromo and two other Marines were charged in August with assaulting an Iraqi two weeks before the killing that led to charges against Thomas and the others. Charges against all three were later dropped.

Thomas’ attorneys have said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from his combat duty in Fallouja in 2004. They have argued that Thomas believed he was following a lawful order to get tougher with suspected insurgents.

Prosecution witnesses testified that Thomas shot the 52-year-old man at point-blank range after he had already been shot by other Marines and was lying on the ground.

Lopezromo said a procedure called “dead-checking” was routine. If Marines entered a house where a man was wounded, instead of checking to see whether he needed medical aid, they shot him to make sure he was dead, he testified.

“If somebody is worth shooting once, they’re worth shooting twice,” he said.

The jury is composed of three officers and six enlisted personnel, all of whom have served in Iraq. The trial was set to resume Monday.

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