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Iraq authorities to release US contractors accused of killing American

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Three US contractors arrested for the killing of another contractor will be released due to insufficient evidence against them, their lawyers said Wednesday. Two other men are still being held, but are expected to be released shortly. The five men were arrested and accused of stabbing Jim Kitterman inside the Baghdad Green Zone in what is believed to be the first criminal killing since the Green Zone was formed in 2003. If the men had not been released, they would have been the first Americans to stand trial under the new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Iraq, which removed immunity previously held by all American contractors. The suspects, whom both US and Iraqi authorities declined to identify, are expected to be released shortly. The trial, had it occurred, would have been one of the few tests of the new SOFA since it took effect in early 2009. In April, Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claimed that a US military raid in Iraq violated the SOFA because notice of the military operation was not given to the Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee. Al-Maliki said that he wanted to subject the US forces responsible for the raid to judicial proceedings. The SOFA was signed in December in anticipation of the expiration of the UN mandate allowing US military presence in Iraq.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).