Posted on 07/17/2006 11:02:28 AM PDT by xzins
US MILITARY officials fear that religious hurdles in exhuming the body of a teenage girl could complicate the prosecution of American soldiers accused of raping and murdering her.
The officials said a vigorous prosecution was essential and punishment should be severe if the five servicemen and one former soldier were convicted.
Five soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are accused of raping and murdering Abeer al-Janabi near the town of Mahmoudiya on March 12. A sixth soldier is accused of failing to report the crime. Three of her family members were also killed in the assault.
The victim's male relatives have refused to allow her body to be exhumed because of objections from a Muslim cleric. Islamic law generally frowns on exhumations as desecration of the dead.
"Chief among our concerns is carrying out justice. But when you get town officials or an imam saying that exhuming the body doesn't jibe with our cultural sensitivities, that creates a massive stumbling block," a US military official in Baghdad close to the investigation said.
Without the physical evidence, prosecutors must rely on statements from the suspects.
So far, statements from suspects is the entirety of the case.
I had hoped for the exhumation to determine the age of the alleged victim.
The entire case smells fishy. The whole case was started on the one soldier telling about a rumor he had heard.
Okay then, case closed. Innocent until proven guilty.
Case closed.
For me, the main task, still, is to determine what actually happened. These losers are known liars and expert propagandists.
Whatever happened to the claim that interfaith massacre bodies were the result of American atrocities?
Don't muslims permit rape as punishment?
Defnitely need the evidence. I'm not saying they did or didn't due it, but I'm going to presume their innocent. However, with as many forces as we have over there I'm sure some crimes have been committed (it's just pure statistics), but we shouldn't side-step due process and a good defense just to show the Iraqi's that we punish our own.
Wow...I had too many mis-"spelt" words in that post. Sorry.
The media has never cared this much about incestuous rape and honor killing stories around the muslim world. Even when such murders occur in the West.
And they didn't care when Bill Clinton was accused of multiple rapes.
And they don't care about war crimes when the "insurgents" attacks civilians (then it is "just" a civil war) or commit war crimes against our troops.
So taking rape, murder, and war crimes off the table, it is strictly about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.
Hell, they don't even give much coverage to any UN rape trials.
It's not a religious obstacle; it's a ruse. Sweetness & Light details Moslem Law and shows that Iraqis have not blocked exhumation and autopsies elsewhere--only here and in Haditha where there is grave suspicion that the claims against the military are false.
To be honest with you, the only record I've read of their statements is in the affidavit filed by the FBI agent for charges against former PFC Green.
The agent alleges some of the soldiers verified murders and a rape taking place and that similar things were said at a stress debriefing (medically confidential??). His affidavit is the only thing approaching evidence that's been released. But there were many inconsistencies in the affidavit as pointed out by freeper pissant.
Troops who rape and murder civilians are no more representative of the US military than Sgt. Akbar (who threw grenades into an officer's tent, killing 2 and injuring another dozen) was.
"Troops who rape and murder civilians are no more representative of the US military than Sgt. Akbar (who threw grenades into an officer's tent, killing 2 and injuring another dozen) was."
Have they been convicted yet?
I don't think so but they do not hesitate to sentence a woman to death by stoning!
Hmmmmm.
Very intereting. A trial without evidence.
Perhaps the accused should be asked to carry a red hot iron bar and see if they develop burns after several days?
Every time a case gets close to trial, they pull this stunt......OOOOOOH Noooooooo you can't dig up the evidence, it's against our religion.......
Meanwhile the MSM has given them all the weeks/months of headlines they want.
Next time we should just tell them to bring us some evidence that is worth a damn, before we even think of prosecuteing.
We all know they're guilty: They're US servicemen.
This is unbelievable - it's not like we're talking about someone clearly innocent like Tookie Williams or Osama bin Ladin....
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