US Marine in Hamdania case loses rank

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This was published 16 years ago

US Marine in Hamdania case loses rank

A US Marine guilty of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi grandfather last year was sentenced to a reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge with no additional time in prison, according to a US Marine Corps statement.

Corporal Trent Thomas, who has been in military prison since May 2006, was found guilty by a military jury on Wednesday of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit larceny, housebreaking, kidnapping, false official statements and murder for his involvement in the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in April 2006 near Hamdania, Iraq.

The jury found Thomas was not guilty of murder, larceny, housebreaking and making a false official statement.

Thomas, a Purple Heart recipient who was serving his third tour of duty in Iraq, was one of eight members of an infantry unit charged in the death of Awad, a disabled Iraqi policeman.

The incident was one of a series in which US forces abused or killed Iraqi civilians under questionable circumstances, damaging the image of US troops abroad.

During Thomas' trial, several Marines testified that their squad leader, Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins, hatched a plan to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent they blamed for attacks.

When they did not find him, several Marines grabbed a man, believed to be Awad, from a nearby house. Several Marines testified Hutchins and Thomas fired their weapons at the man several times at close range and then placed a rifle and shovel next to his body to give the appearance he had been caught digging a hole for a roadside bomb.

Defence attorneys for Thomas said the 25-year-old Marine and father of two young children was following orders and that the Iraqi man a legitimate target.

Earlier this year, Thomas pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy, larceny, housebreaking, kidnapping and lying to investigators, but withdrew his plea a few weeks later.

Four Marines and a US Navy corpsman with Thomas' unit have pleaded guilty and received jail sentences ranging from one year to eight years. Hutchins and another Marine face trials this month.

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