Iraqi scholars displeased with girl rapist/killer ruling

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Ulema and Intellectuals Group said Thursday’s court ruling against a U.S. soldier who raped and killed an Iraqi girl was “unfair” and would “encourage similar acts.” “The ruling by a U.S. court on Thursday (May 21) against criminal Steven Green is entirely devoid of justice,” the group said in a press released received by IraqiNews.com news agency. Former Army private first class Green will serve life in a U.S. prison for what a federal prosecutor called “unthinkable and outrageous” crimes against civilians in Iraq. The nine-woman, three-man jury convicted Green on May 7 of raping and killing 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, then shooting her parents and 5-year-old sister to death on March 12, 2006. The jurors deliberated over two days on his sentence but couldn’t agree unanimously Thursday on life or death, which Justice Department prosecutor Brian Skaret had urged. That means Green will get a life term when sentenced formally Sept. 4. The murders took place in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad in an area where some of the country’s worst insurgent violence was then unfolding. Green, 24, is among a handful of former servicemembers prosecuted under a 2000 law that allows the government to bring charges in a federal civilian court for crimes committed overseas while in uniform. The first former U.S. soldier to face the death penalty before a civilian jury for a wartime crime, Green was honorably discharged for a personality disorder before his role in the crimes was discovered. AmR (S)/SR 1