Ex-guards sentenced for Iraq shootings plan appeal
Appearing in court wearing leg shackles and prison garb, the former contractors insisted they were innocent.
“The verdict is wrong, you know that I am innocent, sir,” Slatten told the judge.
“I feel utterly betrayed by the same government I served honorably,” Slough said.
But Lamberth said he fully agreed with the jury’s guilty verdicts and praised the Justice Department and the FBI for investigating the shooting and putting the truth “out there for the world to see.”
Nearly 100 friends and relatives packed the courtroom to show support for the men, with many openly weeping throughout the proceedings. Several came to the podium, some choking back tears, to speak glowingly of the men they knew as role models and patriots who only wanted to help serve their country.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Martin described the shooting as an unprovoked ambush of civilians and said the men haven’t shown remorse or taken responsibility. Defense lawyers countered that the men were targeted with gunfire and shot back in self-defense with guns the State Department had provided them for safety.
“This was no unprovoked massacre, and we’ll never accept that it was,” said Brian Heberlig, attorney for Slough.
Mohammad Kinani Al-Razzaq spoke in halting English about the death of his 9-year-old son as a picture of the smiling boy, Ali Mohammed Hafedh Abdul Razzaq, was shown on courtroom monitors. He demanded the court show Blackwater “what the law is.”
“What’s the difference between these criminals and terrorists?” Razzaq said.
via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/1H2E8de
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