US President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon the accused in a massacre in Iraq was described as unfair by the relatives of one of the victims.
“This is wrong, it is an injustice,” said Faris Fadel, Osama Abbas’ brother, one of 14 stabbed by U.S. contractors at security company Blackwater in 2007.
“How is it possible that those who have blood on their hands are released?” He added.
At the time, the Blackwater company had been hired to protect American diplomats in Iraq. It had been four years since the American invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein.
The four contractors, who worked for the State Department, opened fire on Nisoor Square, a busy vehicular redoubt, killing 14 Iraqis, including a small child, and injuring several others.
The defendants are Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard. Trump pardoned them last Tuesday.
Defendants’ lawyers say they had been shot dead by Iraqi insurgents. Prosecutors have asserted that the contractors opened fire without provocation. In Iraq, the incident is considered a massacre.
“They were all civilians, they weren’t to blame for anything,” Faris Fade says. Contractors “destroyed my home, my family.”