Who knows how this case will go? If any legal folks out there have an idea on how this might go down, I would be interested in hearing your opinion on this. –Matt
Briton goes on trial in Iraq charged with killing two colleagues
Wednesday 29 December 2010
A British security contractor charged with killing two of his colleagues after an argument in Baghdad’s Green Zone has gone on trial in Iraq.
Danny Fitzsimons, 29, from Middleton, Manchester, is charged with shooting dead another Briton, Paul McGuigan, and an Australian, Darren Hoare, in August 2009 and wounding an Iraqi guard while fleeing.
All were working for the British security firm ArmorGroup Iraq.
He is the first westerner to go on trial in an Iraqi court since a 2009 US-Iraqi security agreement lifted immunity for foreigners, and faces the death penalty if convicted.
Fitzsimons, a former soldier who served in the Parachute regiment, was in court as the guard, Arkan Mahdi Saleh, told a three-judge panel he saw Fitzsimons with a pistol before he was shot.
“I was standing at a guard post when I heard some movements behind me,” said Saleh, 33. “When I turned back to check, I saw Fitzsimons with a pistol in his hand and aiming at me.”
Fitzsimons stood behind a wooden fence with two security guards closely watching him.
At one point he asked a judge for permission to speak, but the request was refused. “I’ve got a lot to say,” Fitzsimons told his lawyer after the court adjourned.
Written testimonies from three foreign security contractors said they saw the three men drinking and quarrelling inside one of the caravans where they lived.
The case was adjourned until 23 January.
Story here.