[Asharq al-Aswat] An Iraqi court on Monday convicted a British man and sentenced him to 20 years in prison over the shooting deaths of two contractors, making him the first Westerner convicted in an Iraqi court since the 2003 U.S. invasion.Danny Fitzsimons, 30, was found guilty in the 2009 fatal shootings of a British and Australian contractor who worked with him and with attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.
Fitzsimons, who had been facing the death penalty, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named as he was being led from the courtroom by Iraqi guards that he was happy with the sentence. But when asked whether he thought the trial was fair, he said: "No."
The former security contractor from Rochdale, England, admitted to shooting the men but claimed it was self-defense.
During earlier testimony, Fitzsimons said that he and co-workers Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare had been drinking whiskey when a fight broke out. In the quarrel, he said the two other men pulled guns on him and he had no choice but to shoot them with his pistol.
Covered with blood, Fitzsimons decamped the scene and was running toward the British Embassy when an Iraqi guard pointed his Kalashinkov rifle at him and asked him to stop. Fitzsimons shot the guard in his left thigh.
All three foreigners and the Iraqi guard worked for a British security firm, ArmorGroup.
Fitzsimons also claimed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In handing down the verdict, the head judge of the three-judge panel said Fitzsimons' mental condition was taken into consideration when deciding on the sentence.
"Danny Fitzsimons, the court has found established evidence that you killed the two slain men and attempted to kill the third," said the judge.
"So the court issues its sentence according to ... the Iraqi criminal code and sentences you to 20 years in prison," the judge added.
Fitzsimons was accompanied by his Iraqi lawyer, Tariq Harb; his family, who attended a court session last week, were not in attendance.
"This is a very good sentence. I saved him from the gallows," Harb told news hounds afterward. Fitzsimons now has 30 days to appeal, which Harb said he would do.