http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/politics-6/1110798969212020.xml&storylist=pahomepageFORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Two months after Staff Sgt. Tracy Perkins was convicted in the death of an Iraqi who allegedly drowned after soldiers forced him into the Tigris River, his co-defendant is hoping for a different result.
Army 1st Lt. Jack Saville is charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making a false statement. His court-martial was to begin Monday.
The 25-year-old West Point graduate faces a maximum penalty of 29 years in military prison if convicted. He is accused of ordering troops to push two curfew violators into the river near Samarra in early 2004, resulting in the drowning death of Zaidoun Hassoun, 19.
But defense lawyers contend Zaidoun is still alive, and in December a judge granted a defense request to have the body exhumed to determine identification and cause of death. It's unclear if that exhumation has happened.
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background:
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/archives/2004_01_01_healingiraq_archive.html(approximately 3/4th down on the page)
excerpt:
On Saturday the 3rd of January 2004, my son and his cousin were travelling back to our residence in Samarra, they were driving a small cargo truck belonging to a third party from which they earn their livelihood in a country torn by wars and sanctions. Yes, they were back from Baghdad yet misfortune followed them from the beginning, their car broke down on the road which caused a delay in their arrival to Samarra when the curfew hour was just about to start in the city...And this is where the first chapter of the tragedy takes place. An American army patrol stood in their way, and after they went through the whole procedure of searching my son and his cousin, and inspecting the cargo load, they tied them up both and led them to an area about three kilometres from the scene and...in front of one of the gates of the Tharthar dam where water flows at its strongest rate and to my son and his cousin's horror, they ordered them to jump into the water, it was midnight and the cold was unbearable, when they hesitated, they were pushed by the soldiers. Unfortunately my boy cannot swim, even though swimming at this time of the year wouldn't have helped. Yet my sons cousin survived miraculously after he got stuck in a tree branch to give us his account of this tragic event which could have went untold. He tried saving my son, but the water current was stronger than him...After days of search we found my sons jacket floating with the stream, it shall remain with me as a memory and a symbol of the injustice brought against him by soldiers of the United States of America's army, who came to our country under the banners of human rights and democracy only to send my son to his demise on his wedding days...
To document the incident, my son's name is Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil Hassun Al-Samarrai, born in the 1st of June 1984...Yes, they killed him and they broke my heart, try to imagine that dear sirs and ask your wives how hard it is for a mother to see her fruit ripen only to be thrown by sinful hands and to be swept away without any mercy or humanity. Those soldiers have turned everything America has ever stood for into one big lie. I was a victim, and there are and will be many more.
And that is why I turn to you all and to your respected ladies. And especially to Mr. President George Bush to look into my case and order an investigation of the event. I know that anything you may do will not bring me back my boy, but I wish that the procedures may put an end to the suffering of Iraqi mothers, we are reaping misery every day from actions of American soldiers with no regard to our human life, our dignity, and our culture and values. Maybe the procedures will help me trust (again) the validity of those banners and mottos that fly high in American skies, those which we do not perceive in our country, but instead find their opposites. Maybe such an investigation will support the power of law and justice so that day may not come when the conscience of one of the murderers awakens and confesses to its deeds, which will make it then a responsibility on your great nation.
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