Eight US Marine reservists face charges ranging from negligent homicide to making false statements in connection with the mistreatment of prisoners of warin Iraq.
Two of the men were charged with negligent homicide in connection with thedeath in June of an Iraqi who was held at a detention facility, said Marine StaffSergeant Bill Lisbon, a spokesman at Camp Pendleton, where the reservists arebeing held.
Sgt Lisbon said yesterday that he was unsure how many of the other sixreservists had been charged in connection with that incident and would not saywhether the man was the 52-year-old Iraqi prisoner of war whose death at a camprun by the 1st Marine Division near Nasiriyah was reported last June.
Major Clark Paulus and Lance Corporal Christian Hernandez face negligenthomicide charges. The other six face lesser charges involving mistreatment ofprisoners.
Paulus also faces two counts of dereliction of duty, one count of cruelty andmaltreatment, one count of making a false official statement and one count ofassault. Hernandez also faces one count of dereliction, one count of cruelty andmaltreatment, and three counts of assault.
The others charged include: Major William Vickers, one count of dereliction ofduty; Sergeant Gary Pittman, two counts of dereliction of duty and five countsof assault; Lance Corporal William Roy, two counts of dereliction of duty, onecount of cruelty and maltreatment, and five counts of assault; Sergeant AlbertRodriquez-Martinez, one count of making false official statements and two countsof assault; Lance Corporal Andrew Rodney, one count of assault; and LanceCorporal Konstantin Mikholap, one count of making false official statements andtwo counts of assault.
The eight belong to the 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment. It was not knownif all had retained lawyers
.A lawyer for one of the men said the US army is supposed to handle POW facilities and the Marine reservists were untrained for the job.
The reservists "had no training at all. They were given a 30-minute trainingon the Geneva Convention", he said.
Sgt Lisbon said the cases will be examined by the military equivalent of agrand jury, which will decide whether the men will be court-martialed.
AP