US soldier in Germany convicted of Mafia-style murders of Iraqis
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Sept. 19, IRNA
Germany-Iraq-US
A US military court in the south German town of Vilseck sentenced a soldier to a seven-month prison term for premeditated murder in connection with the deaths of Iraqi prisoners from two separate incidents in early 2007, the press reported Thursday.
The 23-year convict, specialist Belmor Ramos, was accused of co-planning the execution-style murder of four blind-folded and handcuffed Iraqi detainees together with three accomplices, all of whom are also standing trial for the role in the savage killings.
Ramos who himself did not pull the trigger in the deadly shootings, received a rather mild jail term during the 45-minute court session for agreeing to testify against six other GIs charged with murder at their later trial, the US army was quoted as saying in the southern German town of Gravenwoehr.
He was also dishonorably discharged from the US army.
At least 15 soldiers were at or near the site of the killings, according to witnesses' recollections of the criminal incident.
All the accused were deployed at the US military base in the southern town of Schweinfurt.
Tens of thousands of US troops from Germany have been sent to take part in American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past six years.
Germany is also a major logistic hub for global US military actions and so called 'anti-terror' operations.
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