A
citizenship identification card issued by the Iraqi government in 1993
shows Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, nicknamed al-Janabi, as translated from
the identity card in this handout photo from her relatives in Baghdad July
9, 2006. Five US soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case
that has outraged Iraqis, as documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday
showed the rape victim was a minor aged just 14, and not over 20 as US
officials say. [Reuters] |
Five US soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case that has
outraged Iraqis, as documents showed on Sunday the rape victim was aged 14, and
not over 20 as US officials have said.
Days after former private Steven Green was charged as a civilian in a US
court with rape and four murders, four serving soldiers were charged with the
same offences, the US military said in statement. It did not name the troops.
Another soldier, apparently a sixth member of Green's former unit in the
502nd Infantry Regiment, was charged on Saturday with dereliction of duty for
not reporting the crime in March.
All five were charged with conspiring with Green, accused by US prosecutors
of going with three others to a house near the checkpoint they were manning
outside Mahmudiya, near Baghdad, and of killing a couple and their two
daughters. The five could face the death penalty.
Court documents described the raped daughter as an "adult female" and
estimated her age as 25. US military officials in Iraq say their documents have
her as 20. Local officials and relatives had said she was 15 or 16.
Her identity card and a copy of her death certificate obtained by Reuters,
however, show she was 14.
Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was born on August 19, 1991 in Baghdad, according
to the identity card, provided to Reuters by a relative. Issued in 1993, it
features a photograph of her at 18 months, wide-eyed and with a lick of dark
hair over her brow.
A copy of her death certificate, dated March 13, gives the same birth date.
She was found at home by a relative on March 12 and had died from "gunshot
wounds to the head, with burns", said the document, signed by doctor Wael Habib
and a registrar.
No independent verification of the documents was immediately available.
The age of consent with parental approval in Iraq is 15, though it is not
uncommon for girls to marry younger in rural areas.
Abeer's sister Hadeel was aged six when she died of "several gunshot wounds".
Scorch Marks and Bloodstains
In
this photo provided by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, Steven D.
Green is shown in A booking mug shot at the Mecklenburg County jail in
Charlotte, North Carolina, July 3, 2006.
[AP] |
The killers tried to burn the bodies and house to cover their tracks,
relatives and local officials have said. Scorch marks and bloodstains can still
be seen in the one-storey home.
Some relatives have said they would not object to exhuming the dead for
forensic tests, a religiously sensitive process.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, balancing a dependence on US firepower
with a need to show Iraqis he is in charge, has voiced frustration with a
mounting number of cases against Americans and wants a review of their immunity
from Iraqi law.
Since revelations in March of a US probe into whether Marines killed 24
people at Haditha, Mahmudiya is the fifth case of serious crime being
investigated by the US military. In all, 16 soldiers have been charged with
murder in the past month or so -- as many as in the previous three years of
fighting.
Officers say generals are cracking down to try to curb harm to civilians that
have turned Iraqis against U.S. troops. One said a report submitted on Friday to
the top general in Iraq should see action against Marine commanders who failed
to act on evidence troops may have killed civilians at Haditha on November 19.
Green, 21, has since been discharged from the army due to a "personality
disorder". The case came to light during stress counselling for a soldier in
Green's unit last month.
A soldier cited in US court documents as the first witness told investigators
Green and three others drank alcohol and discussed rape. They then told the
soldier to keep watch on the radio as they set off for the house, some in
civilian clothes.
Two soldiers who said they went to the house accused Green of killing the
parents and child before he and the other soldier in the home raped Abeer. Green
then shot her too, they said.
A sixth unidentified soldier is mentioned in court papers as discussing the
case later with the first witness at their base.
The death certificate makes no mention of rape, a taboo subject in Iraq.
Some relatives have said they would not object to exhuming the dead for
forensic tests, a religiously sensitive process.
Abeer's 34-year-old father Qasim Hamza Rasheed al-Janabi, whose five-year-old
ID card photograph shows a slim, dark man with a moustache, was a labourer who
died of a "smashing of the head due to gunshot wounds", his death certificate
said.
His wife, Fakhriya Taha Muheisin al-Janabi, was 43 when she died of "several
wounds". All four certificates gave the time of death as 2 p.m. on March 12,
possibly referring to when the bodies were found by Mehdi Obeid Salih,
Fakhriya's cousin.
Two sons, aged 13 and 10, survived because they were absent from the house at
the time.
"She was a beautiful girl," one relative said, asking not to be named. "She
complained to her mother about trouble from American soldiers. She gave them no
encouragement as we are a conservative and respectable family."
