BAGHDAD, IRAQ- Iraqis reacted with outrage on Wednesday to the decision of outgoing US President Donald Trump to pardon four former US private security agents convicted of killing Iraqi civilians 13 years ago in Baghdad.
“I lost all hope a long time ago,” Fares Saadi, the Iraqi police officer who investigated the shootings in Nissour Square, a busy place in the Iraqi capital, told AFP.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. I picked people up, took them to the hospital, took statements, but I knew we wouldn’t see justice,” he said by phone.
One of the officers, Nicholas Slatten, was sentenced to life in prison.
The four Americans had been convicted of taking part in a shooting in Baghdad on September 16, 2007, a bloody episode that sparked an international scandal, as it highlighted the use of private companies by the US Army. This increased Iraqi resentment toward the United States.
Fourteen Iraqi civilians have been killed and 17 wounded. Blackwater company agents claimed to have acted in self-defense.
The Blackwater team, hired to ensure the safety of U.S. diplomats in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003, said it responded to the insurgent fire.
The U.S. presidential pardon came just weeks after the International Criminal Court put an end to a preliminary investigation into alleged war crimes committed by British troops in Iraq after the invasion.
“The latest ruling confirms the violations of human rights and international law by these countries,” said Ali Baiati, a member of Iraq’s Human Rights Commission.
“They grant immunity to their soldiers even though they claim to protect human rights. There has never been a trial over the dead in Baghdad,” he lamented.