Justice for Abeer Hazma and her family
May. 8th, 2009 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdhttp://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE5468HP20090507?sp=true
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - A former U.S. soldier was convicted on Thursday of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family near Baghdad in 2006 and now faces a possible death sentence.
The federal court jury that delivered guilty verdicts on all 16 counts against former Private 1st Class Steven Green will decide his fate in the trial's death penalty phase beginning on Monday.
...
Green, 19 at the time of the crime, was described as the trigger-man in the group of five men, who donned black "ninja" outfits and raped Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14, and shot to death her and her father, mother and 6-year-old sister.
Of the others:
Spc. James Barker was sentenced to 90 years and must serve 20 before being eligible for parole.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez was sentenced to 100 years and will be eligible in 10.
Pfc. Jesse Spielman, 110 years, eligible in 10.
Pfc. Brian Howard, dishonorable discharge and 27 months imprisonment for obstruction of justice and being an accessory after the fact.
I took this case very personally. Except for the mother's age, the family was an exact parallel to mine. Every time I read about it, it was Bun's face I saw peering shyly from a hijab. It was Dollface, age 6, I saw dead on the floor. It was Jonner and Obi coming home from school to find our corpses, Bun naked and burned. I had nightmares like I've never had for reading of any atrocity.
And I demanded of the virulant defenders of the war, "If you're doing this there, how long before you're doing it HERE? How long is it before it's MY family you kill?"
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - A former U.S. soldier was convicted on Thursday of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family near Baghdad in 2006 and now faces a possible death sentence.
The federal court jury that delivered guilty verdicts on all 16 counts against former Private 1st Class Steven Green will decide his fate in the trial's death penalty phase beginning on Monday.
...
Green, 19 at the time of the crime, was described as the trigger-man in the group of five men, who donned black "ninja" outfits and raped Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14, and shot to death her and her father, mother and 6-year-old sister.
Of the others:
Spc. James Barker was sentenced to 90 years and must serve 20 before being eligible for parole.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez was sentenced to 100 years and will be eligible in 10.
Pfc. Jesse Spielman, 110 years, eligible in 10.
Pfc. Brian Howard, dishonorable discharge and 27 months imprisonment for obstruction of justice and being an accessory after the fact.
I took this case very personally. Except for the mother's age, the family was an exact parallel to mine. Every time I read about it, it was Bun's face I saw peering shyly from a hijab. It was Dollface, age 6, I saw dead on the floor. It was Jonner and Obi coming home from school to find our corpses, Bun naked and burned. I had nightmares like I've never had for reading of any atrocity.
And I demanded of the virulant defenders of the war, "If you're doing this there, how long before you're doing it HERE? How long is it before it's MY family you kill?"
