UK seeks trial of US troops for killing journalist in Iraq
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Oct 14, IRNA
UK Journalist-Inquest
Britain's Attorney General is being asked to put American soldiers on trial in the UK for unlawfully killing award-winning journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq three years ago.
Andrew Walker, the assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire, in southern England said Friday he would be writing to Lord Goldsmith 'to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators responsible for this to justice'.
It came after a delayed inquest into the death of Lloyd at the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 ruled that the journalist had been 'unlawfully killed' by US troops.
The verdict was welcomed by the journalist's family, employers and the National Union of Journalists. His widow Lynn accused US forces of allowing soldiers to 'behave like trigger-happy cowboys in an area in which there were civilians travelling on a highway'.
"The marines who fired on civilians and those who gave those orders should now stand trial. Under the Geneva Conventions Act, that trial should be for the murder of Terry Lloyd and nothing less," his widow said in a statement.
Lloyd's daughter Chelsey, said her father was 'unlawfully killed by a bullet to the head from a heavy-caliber machine gun fired by US marines. The killing of my father would seem to amount to murder'.
According to the Guardian newspaper Saturday, a spokesman for the attorney general said he would await the letter from the coroner.
The US Pentagon also issued a statement insisting that American troops 'never deliberately targeted non-combatants, including journalists'.
The British journalist, who is famous for exposing Saddam Hussein's chemical massacre on the Iraqi town of Halabja in 1988, was killed while covering events near Basra, when he was working for ITN News as an independent reporter and not 'embedded' with US or UK forces.
The inquest found that he was originally injured in the cross-fire between US and Iraqi forces, but that he received a fatal bullet in the head from American troops while being taken to hospital in a civilian vehicle.
The coroner reserved particular anger for the US soldiers who refused to attend the inquest to give their account. Instead, they gave statements to the court.
"I have no doubt Mr Lloyd was killed by a tracer bullet fired from an American gun. This injury was received after Mr Lloyd had been placed in the rear of the minibus and was consistent with a hole in the back of the minibus," Walker said.
"In my view, I have no doubt that the minibus presented no threat to the American forces. It was obvious that wounded persons were getting into the vehicle," he said.
The coroner ruled that the US soldiers did not fire in self- defense. Had the killing taken place under English law 'it would have constituted an unlawful homicide', he said.
2220/345/1430/2322/1412
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