US Marines murdered an Iraqi civilian out of frustration at being unable to keep a suspected insurrection leader behind bars, a witness told a court-martial on Thursday.
Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins, 23, is on trial as the alleged mastermind of the plot to kidnap and kill suspected Iraqi insurgent Saleh Gowad.
"He needs to die," Private Robert Pennington testified, recalling conversations with members of his squad about their frustration that Gowad was released each time after questioning at Abu Ghraib prison.
Pennington said something had to be done about Gowad or Marines would be killed.
When the suspected insurgent could not be captured, the Marines instead killed the man's neighbor in Hamdania, west of Baghdad, on April 26 last year, prosecutors said.
"Killing a military-age male might send a message to Gowad we are not to be trifled with and he could be next," said Pennington, who agreed to testify after pleading guilty and receiving an eight-year sentence in February.
Prosecutors allege the dead civilian -- 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad -- was dragged from his home and shot dead beside a roadside crater to make it look as if he was an insurgent planting a bomb.
The government alleges it was the sergeant's idea to stage the scene, with a stolen shovel and AK-47 rifle placed by the alleged victim's body to make it look as though he had been digging a hole to plant a roadside bomb.
Hutchins told his men: "We have to take care of it," Pennington testified before the court-martial at Marine Base Camp Pendleton, in California.
"We all agreed to it," he said.
Hutchins' defense team has said it will show that the sergeant suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the time of the killing.
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