An Iraqi court on Sunday freed two men accused of being part of a hundreds-strong mob that killed six British troops in 2003, angering the soldiers’ parents, but drawing smiles from those in the courtroom.
Judge Baligh Hamdi’s decision to throw out the case against Hamza Hateer, 33, and Mussa Ismael al-Fartusi, 39, means no one has yet been convicted over the military policemen’s killing, though seven arrest warrants remain outstanding.
“The court did not see sufficient proof to condemn you and has decided to release you,” the judge told the pair in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq after hearing from eight witnesses, all of them serving or retired policemen.
The six troops were killed when a mob of about 400 people attacked a police station in Majar Al-Kabir, southern Iraq, on June 24, 2003.
Four Iraqis were also killed and 17 injured in the incident, according to then-village chief Abu Maryam.
In Britain, the father of one of the killed policemen, 21-year-old Corporal Simon Miller, said that he was “devastated” by the news.
John Miller, 59, from northeast England, said: “My son was let down so badly in life, now he has been let down so badly in death. I’m devastated, I just can’t believe it.”
In the courtroom, however, Iraqis attending the hearing broke out into smiles after the judge announced the charges were being dropped.
“It is not logical to accuse Iraqis of killing soldiers occupying our country,” said a court employee who did not want to give his name.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence pledged to continue pressing for those behind the killings to be prosecuted.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the