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A US SOLDIER accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last year will plead guilty in exchange for escaping the death penalty and is sorry for what he did, his lawyers said.
Sergeant Robert Bales faces charges including 16 counts of murder, six of attempted murder and seven of assault over the massacre in southern Afghanistan in March last year.
Seventeen of the 22 victims were women or children and almost all were shot in the head. Prosecutors called in November for him to face the death penalty, setting a provisional date for court-martial in September.
In this courtroom sketch, a guard with the Afghan National Army named Tosh Ali is shown on the right-hand side of a video monitor as he sits next to a translator and testifies from Afghanistan in the military preliminary hearing of US Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales (seated third from lower left). Pic: AP Photo/Lois Silver
His lawyer John Browne said that on June 5, Bales will plead guilty. “Today we announced that we reached an agreement with the military to take the death penalty off the table if he will plead” guilty, Browne said.
“And then he’ll have a sentencing trial in September to determine whether he can get life with parole or whether he will get life without parole,” Browne said in video broadcast on the BBC web site.
Asked if Bales was sorry, Browne said:
Absolutely. And I think that will become clear as the process goes forward. He’s very relieved that the death penalty is not on the table.
The next hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the northwestern US state of Washington, where Bales is being held.
It will be “more or less a guilty plea hearing,” Browne said.
Mohammed Wazir talks in Kandahar, Afghanistan about the night of March 11, 2012 when a US soldier burst into his family home. Wazir said he returned home from a trip the morning after the attack to find 11 members of his family dead – his wife, his mother, two brothers, a 13-year-old nephew and his six children. Their bodies were partially burned. Sgt Robert Bales is accused of the killings. Pic: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus
The plea bargain deal is likely to anger families of the victims who originally wanted him to face justice, and potentially a death penalty, in Afghanistan.
The 39-year-old allegedly left his base in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province on the night of March 11, 2012, to commit the killings, which included nine children. Bales allegedly set several of their bodies on fire.
At a pre-trial hearing in November, Bales’s family insisted he was innocent until proven guilty, calling him “courageous and honourable,” while his lawyer raised questions about the role of alcohol, drugs and stress in the tragedy.
But prosecutors lashed the “heinous and despicable” alleged massacre during an eight-day hearing, details of which were given at the military base south of Seattle.
Prosecutors at the so-called Article 32 pre-trial hearing alleged that Bales left the base twice to carry out the killings, returning in between and even telling a colleague what he had done.
The hearing included three evening sessions – daytime in Afghanistan – to hear testimony by video conference from Afghan victims and relatives of those who died.
Kari Bales, left, stands with her sister, Stephanie Tandberg, right, as Stephanie prepares to read a statement to reporters. Pic: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
In a statement read out by the soldier’s sister Stephanie Tandberg after last year’s hearing, the family said it had yet to learn the how, why and what of the incident:
Much of the testimony was painful, even heartbreaking, but we are not convinced the government has shown us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what happened that night.
As a family, we all grieve deeply for the Afghani families who lost their loved ones on March 11, but we must all not rush to judgment.
In America, due process means innocence is always presumed unless and until a trial proves otherwise. There has been no trial yet, and our family member is presumed by law, and by us, to be innocent.
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but but but Poots took legal advice …… god save us
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Did you hear who he took that advice from? I’m not even kidding here, Jamie effing Bryson. The loyalist headbanger. .
@Pete Gilmartin: the Poundshop Lawyer, mar a deir Colum Eastwood. The absolute catastrophe that is the leadership of far-right Unionism, is like an elixer of youth for me today, its like drinking pure happiness. Can’t wait for this Assembly election now.
@Pete Gilmartin: Are you serious? Bryson hasn’t even passed the bar.
@Pete Gilmartin: Had to go and Google that… Seems you were kidding, Poots got his legal advice from John Larkin the former Attorney General in the North.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Yep, but Bryson claimed in a radio interview he gave it. Anything to try to make himself relevant.
@Isa: That’s it, he’d say mass…
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: No Kidding – Bryson is claiming in todays Belfast Telegraph that he had been advising Poots and the DUP with all the legal implications of the Protocol for months.
Poots said yesterday that he also received legal opinion from John Larkin but didnt clarify what that opinion was and which opinion he eventually went on before acting. Mind you, I dont think the DUP was ever in the business of taking advice from anyone.
@Angela McCarthy: that’s a scurrilous remark ! DUP take advice from Doctor No.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Bryson never passed a bar in his life, especially when Edwin in buying.
If this judicial review shows that Edwin Poots broke the law then he should suffer the consequences of his actions.
@Joe Johnson: while I agree in principle, he can say it was based on legal advice and legal advice often differs, even though what he was trying to do was a wrecking tactic, it’s probably not criminal. In any case, he hasn’t managed to be selected by his party to run in the now consequent election, so his punishment will be to live on in ignominy as one of the most incompetent politicians in the history of Ireland or Britain. And probably the World.
Playing bigoted politics to get what you what to the detriment of workers across the whole island should not be allowed happen, he somehow needs to be sanctioned
You couldn’t write what’s happening in the UK at present. Brexit is a disaster and will have long lasting negative ramifications. Throw in the DUP and Borris and the asylum starts rocking to ABBA….
There’s no one driving the red bus these days, they’re all partying down the back.
@Kevin Conway: I quote Professor Anton Muscatelli principal and vice chancellor at the University of Glasgow from 2018.
“the most unhinged example of national self-sabotage in living memory.”
I think the legal opinion that Poots received must have been given to him at an Orange Lodge, or in a pub.
@Angela McCarthy: The News Letter says he got it from John Larkin the former Attorney General in the North.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Jamie Bryson is claiming credit for it on Twitter
@James Beattie: Forgive me for not believing Mr. Bryson.
Here it is for all unionist supporters to see, the UK government does care about Northern Ireland or even consider it as part of the union. Serious questions need to be asked by the people of NI, and in particular the six counties, if they see themselves as been part of the UK moving forward, with the likes of the DUP.
@Michael: I presume you meant to say – ” does not care” in which case I agree with you 100%
@David Abbott: yes.
@David Abbott: correct.
Well that’s embarrassing…
That’ll poots him in his place
Better call Saul…..
Pussin Poots
The Befast High Court did’nt give two hoots for Edwin Poots.
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