Iraqi furor over US rape and killing trial
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 23, 2009 00:00
BAGHDAD - Iraqis expressed shock and disappointment Friday over an American jury's decision to spare the life of an ex-U.S. soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi girl, with many calling for him to be retried or face charges in Iraq.
Steven Dale Green, 24, of Midland, Texas, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday after jurors couldn't agree on a punishment for the March 2006 murders - a case that became a lightning rod for discontent for Iraqis over the occupation.
"American courts showed their bias and injustice and did not issue the correct decision that all religious values and moral norms demand," said Abdullah al-Janabi, 35, one relative of slain 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. Umm Amer al-Janabi, 45, also lambasted the jury. "The punishment should have been the severest possible against this criminal. We will never forgive him," AFPquoted her as saying said.
"We demand this trial be held again and a death penalty issued," Qais Aboud Ali Khutri al-Janabi, the head of a prominent Sunni clan in Mahmoudiya where the girl and her family were killed, told The Associated Press. Sunni MP Salim Abdullah also said Green should have received the death penalty. "This soldier was supposed to be tried in Iraq by the Iraqi court because the incident took place in Iraq."
"Has Iraqi blood and honor become so cheap, where a family can be murdered and a daughter raped and killed, and the verdict is life imprisonment?" said Tariq Dawood, 55, a Sunni from Baghdad. Haidar Kadom, 31, a Shiite teacher, called the sentence "a mockery of Iraqi rights." "If an Iraqi did the same to an American female soldier, he would be regarded as a terrorist and would be sentenced to death," he said.
"American courts showed their bias and injustice and did not issue the correct decision that all religious values and moral norms demand," said Abdullah al-Janabi, 35, one relative of slain 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. Umm Amer al-Janabi, 45, also lambasted the jury. "The punishment should have been the severest possible against this criminal. We will never forgive him," AFPquoted her as saying said.
"We demand this trial be held again and a death penalty issued," Qais Aboud Ali Khutri al-Janabi, the head of a prominent Sunni clan in Mahmoudiya where the girl and her family were killed, told The Associated Press. Sunni MP Salim Abdullah also said Green should have received the death penalty. "This soldier was supposed to be tried in Iraq by the Iraqi court because the incident took place in Iraq."
"Has Iraqi blood and honor become so cheap, where a family can be murdered and a daughter raped and killed, and the verdict is life imprisonment?" said Tariq Dawood, 55, a Sunni from Baghdad. Haidar Kadom, 31, a Shiite teacher, called the sentence "a mockery of Iraqi rights." "If an Iraqi did the same to an American female soldier, he would be regarded as a terrorist and would be sentenced to death," he said.