U.S. Army Charges 4 Soldiers in the Drowning Death

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U.S. Army Charges 4 Soldiers in the Drowning Death of an Iraqi Man

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: July 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, July 2 — Four American soldiers have been charged in the drowning death of an Iraqi detainee who was pushed off a bridge north of Baghdad along with another Iraqi man in January, the Army said Friday.

Three of the soldiers, including one officer, face manslaughter charges, while the fourth has been charged with assault in the nighttime incident that happened on a bridge over the Tigris River in Samarra, 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. All four soldiers were also accused of making false statements about the incident.

The new charges filed against the four soldiers, who are with the Fourth Infantry Division, come just two weeks after a captain in the First Armored Division was charged with murder and dereliction of duty in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian on May 21 after a chase in Kufa, in south-central Iraq.

Word of the charges was reported in Colorado newspapers on Friday after the Army issued a news release locally, and the full details of the charges were released by the Army later in the day.

The Army has now opened investigations into the deaths of at least 40 Iraqi detainees, and the new charges announced reflect a widening pattern of prisoner abuse, including deaths and assault, that took place beyond the confines of the Abu Ghraib prison.

Two military intelligence soldiers with the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Fort Carson, Colo., are expected to face criminal charges in the death of a senior Iraqi officer, Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who died last November at a detention center run by the unit, a senior Army official said Friday.

The soldiers had acknowledged to investigators that interviews with the general involved "physical assaults," but investigators later determined that General Mowhoush died after being shoved head-first into a sleeping bag and smothered during questioning.

With the transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government this week, the charges also raise new questions about the legal authority over American soldiers who are accused of crimes against Iraqis. Despite an agreement to consult on military matters, Iraq and the United States lack a formal accord governing the status of foreign forces and are relying on an American occupation directive covering several important matters. But no commander believes American troops will be subject to Iraqi justice at this time.

The incident on the bridge in Samarra had been under investigation by the Army Criminal Investigative Command for five months. Initially, the soldiers involved told investigators that they were part of a patrol that detained two Iraqi men for a late-night curfew violation on Jan. 3, according to Army documents released Friday. The two Iraqis were identified in the documents only as "Mr. Fadel" and "Mr. Fadhil."

The soldiers said they had stopped the two men, searched them and then released them at the side of the road, near the river, according to the documents. But investigators concluded that the soldiers had transported the two Iraqis to the bridge and pushed them off. Mr. Fadhil drowned, and Mr. Fadel swam ashore and later filed a formal complaint, the Army said. Military officials at Fort Carson and Pentagon later offered conflicting reports about whether any detainee actually died in the bridge incident.

Lt. Jack M. Saville and Sgt. First Class Tracey E. Perkins were charged with manslaughter, assault, conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Sgt. Reggie Martinez was charged with manslaughter. Specialist Terry Bowman was charged with assault. Sergeant Martinez and Specialist Bowman were also charged with making a false official statement.

Sergeant Perkins was further charged with pushing another Iraqi civilian off a different bridge into the Tigris near Balad, Iraq, on or about Dec. 8, 2003.

The four soldiers are from the Third Brigade of the Fourth Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo. Among various assignments, the 5,000-member brigade conducted scouting and security missions in and around the Sunni triangle region north of Baghdad.

At least four senior officers, including the soldiers' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman, were reprimanded for impeding the investigation into the incident, Army officials said.

The four soldiers charged now face what the armed forces call an Article 32, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, which will be held at Fort Carson at an unspecified date, the Army said. At the conclusion of the proceeding, the investigating officer will recommend whether the charges should be referred to court-martial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/03/internat.../03ABUS.html?th