Nicholas Slatten, a sniper who fired the first shots, was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.
Three others - Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard - received 30-year terms for multiple counts of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and using firearms while committing a felony.
Prosecutors described the shooting, at a busy traffic intersection in central Baghdad, as an unprovoked ambush of civilians.
But the former guards claimed they were acting in self-defence when they opened fire in Nisoor Square on September 16, 2007.
Before passing sentence in Washington, DC, US District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected a defence motion to impose lesser sentences, as well as a request by prosecutors to increase the penalties.
All four were convicted last October for their role in the killings that caused an international uproar and eventually led the Iraqi government to expel the company from the country.
For many in Iraq, the attack came to symbolise American impunity and the worst excesses of a contractor to whom the US had outsourced many of its wartime responsibilities.
Despite their low hopes of justice, more than two dozen Iraqi witnesses travelled to Washington, DC to take the stand in the trial, delivering emotional testimony about the carnage that day in Nisoor Square.
Blackwater settled a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the victims' families for an undisclosed sum. [sky.com]
13/4/15
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US says 'more robust' rules after Blackwater shooting...
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. State Department offered assurances Tuesday that it had strengthened the rules governing private security firms in the wake of a 2007 shooting in Iraq in which 14 people died.
A former Blackwater guard was sentenced to life in prison and three others received 30-year sentences Monday for their roles in the mass shooting in which 17 people were also wounded.
The four ex-employees of the U.S. private security firm had been convicted on an array of charges ranging from first degree murder to voluntary manslaughter stemming from the incident in Baghdad's Nisour Square.
"We respect the court's decision in this case and have no comment regarding the findings of the decisions here," acting State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters...AFP....dailystar.com.lb
15/4/15