In the first case of its kind, an Iraqi judge Tuesday convicted an Iraqi man of abducting, torturing and killing two American soldiers in the summer of 2006. Ibrahim Karim Muhammed Salih al-Qaraghuli was found guilty and sentenced to death, after expert testimony that his fingerprints matched photos of bloody prints found on the front panel of the pickup truck used to drag the soldiers, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker. Citing lack of evidence, Judge Munther Raouf Haadi acquitted Qaraghuli's two co-defendants.
Insurgents abducted Menchaca and Tucker on June 16, 2006, while the two soldiers were manning a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a village south of Baghdad. Their bodies were tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged through town. One of the soldiers was beheaded.
The case marked the first time an Iraqi investigative judge filed charges in the slaying of American soldiers.
Col. Rafael Lara Jr., the chief of a U.S. military task force advising Iraqi court officials, said he was disappointed by the acquittals but satisfied by the way the case was handled. "I'm very pleased to see the Iraqi judiciary exercise discretion and the rules of procedure," he said. "Iraqi courts have taken a good step today."
The proceeding cast a spotlight on the Iraqi court system, which has come under scrutiny in recent weeks as Iraqi and American officials have argued over whether Iraq should have the right to prosecute U.S. soldiers under certain circumstances as part of a yet-to-be-signed agreement regarding the presence of American troops in Iraq after 2008.
In Iraq's legal system, investigative judges interview witnesses, collect evidence and issue arrest warrants. A three-judge panel acts as the American equivalent of a presiding judge and jury. The prosecutor assists with the investigation but plays a largely passive role during the proceeding. Defendants are appointed lawyers.
Haadi read summaries of statements from a half-dozen witnesses. One had died since he was interviewed; the rest ignored summons to appear in court.
The statements included somewhat contradictory accounts about the defendants and the abductions. The men who dragged the soldiers through streets wore hoods, according to the witness statements. Nevertheless, some witnesses said they were able to identify some of the defendants.
U.S. officials said they found DNA evidence on a head scarf recovered from the crime scene that tied a second defendant to the crime. But the DNA evidence was not addressed during the proceeding because Iraqi judicial officials didn't want to use an American DNA expert and were unable to find an Iraqi expert, American advisers said.
After issuing his verdict, Haadi ordered the other two defendants, Whalid Khalid Daydan Ibrahim al-Kartani and Kazim Fadhil Jasim Harbi al-Zowbai released immediately.
Tucker and Menchaca were with the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. Spc. David Babineau, a third soldier who was with them when they were abducted, was fatally shot on the spot. U.S. military officials found the two soldiers' bodies three days later. They were laden with explosives.
U.S. military officials have released thousand of detainees in their custody in recent months. When the U.N. security resolution that allows American officials to detain Iraqis without formally charging them expires at the end of the year, U.S. officials intend to hand over most of their detainees to the Iraqi government.