The sentences are the latest milestone in what has been a protracted
and emotionally charged legal struggle arising from the 2007 shootings
at the height of the war in Iraq that brought international condemnation
on Blackwater and by extension on the United States for contracting it
to provide security in Baghdad.
The four former Blackwater
employees were convicted in October after a trial that included grim
video footage of the carnage that broke out as the Blackwater team moved
ostensibly to ensure safe passage for a US convoy as it approached the
area. The government flew Iraqi citizens who either witnessed the
incident or had loved ones amongst the victims to take the stand and
testify to the court.
At the trial, prosecutors said that the men
had opened fire without cause or provocation before the arrival of the
convoy turning Nisoor Square into a virtual shooting gallery. As well
as the 14 who were killed in the fusillade another 17 people were
injured.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth sentence Nicholas
Slatten, who was described as being the first to open fire and who in
October was convicted of first degree murder to life imprisonment. The
three other men, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, were
sentenced to thirty years on charges of manslaughter and using firearms
while committing a felony.
Earlier in the day, defence lawyers for
the men presented character witnesses seeking to portray them as having
acted in good faith in what at the time was a highly volatile and
perilous situation in Baghdad. But prosecutors asserted that the
shooting was an unprovoked ambush of innocent people and that in the
years since they had failed to voice remorse for what happened.
“These
four men have refused to accept virtually any responsibility for their
crimes and the blood they shed that day,” Assistant US Attorney Patrick
Martin said, urging long sentences of the men.
“Based on the
seriousness of the crimes, I find the penalty is not excessive,” Judge
Lamberth told the court as he delivered the sentences. The defence
indicated it is preparing to appeal the convictions of their clients.
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