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Robert Bales trial opens as US sergeant charged with massacring 16 Afghans Robert Bales trial opens as US sergeant charged with massacring 16 Afghans
(about 2 hours later)
A US soldier accused of massacring 16 Afghan villagers, many of them children, in a midnight shooting spree, is due to appear in court for the first time. A US soldier accused of massacring 16 Afghan villagers returned to his base wearing a cape and with the blood of his victims on his rifle, belt, shirt and trousers, a military prosecutor said on Monday.
Prosecutors say Robert Bales, a US army staff sergeant, slipped out of a tiny, remote base that he shared with special forces troops in the early hours of 11 March. Armed with an assault rifle, he then allegedly headed into two impoverished villages in Kandahar province, the Taliban's heartland, and went on a murderous rampage in which six people were also injured. Staff Sgt Robert Bales was incredulous when fellow soldiers drew their weapons on him when he returned to Camp Belambay in southern Afghanistan last March, prosecutor Lt Col Jay Morse said as a preliminary hearing opened at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
The atrocity was the worst committed by US forces in Afghanistan since they helped topple the Taliban government in 2001. If found guilty Bales, a 39 year-old father of two, could face the death penalty. Bales then turned to one sergeant at the scene and said: "Mac, if you rat me out ..." Morse said.
The judicial process starts with a preliminary hearing that could last up to two weeks, held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington state. Prosecutors say Bales slipped out of a tiny, remote base that he shared with special forces troops in the early hours of 11 March. Armed with an assault rifle, he then allegedly headed into two poor villages in Kandahar province, the Taliban's heartland, and went on a murderous rampage in which six people were also injured.
Witnesses to the killings are expected to appear over videolink from Afghanistan, and the court may also see images from a spy balloon that monitored the base where Bales was stationed. The atrocity was the worst committed by US forces in Afghanistan since they helped topple the Taliban government in 2001. If found guilty, Bales, a 39-year-old father of two, could be executed.
Officially, the hearing is designed to assess whether he should face a full court martial, although Bales's defence lawyers say a full trial is inevitable. The judicial process starts with a preliminary hearing that could last up to two weeks.
Bales, from Lake Tapps, Washington, sat beside one of his civilian lawyers, Emma Scanlan, in green fatigues as an investigating officer read the charges against him and informed him of his rights. Bales said "Sir, yes, sir" when asked if he understood them.
Morse said Bales seemed utterly normal in the hours before the killings. With his colleagues, Bales watched the movie Man on Fire, a fictional account of a former CIA operative on a revenge rampage.
Just before he left the base, Morse said, Bales told a special forces soldier that he was unhappy with his family life, and that the troops should have been quicker to retaliate for a roadside bomb attack that claimed one soldier's leg.
"At all times he had a clear understanding of what he was doing and what he had done," said Morse, who described Bales as lucid, coherent and responsive.
Witnesses to the killings are expected to appear over videolink from Afghanistan, and the court may also see images from a spy balloon that monitored Bales's base. Officially, the hearing is designed to assess whether he should face a full court martial, although Bales's defence lawyers say a full trial is inevitable.
"This hearing is important for all of us in terms of learning what the government can actually prove," Bales's lawyer, John Henry Browne, said. "The defence's job is to get as much information as possible. That's what our goal is, in preparation for what is certainly going to be a court martial.""This hearing is important for all of us in terms of learning what the government can actually prove," Bales's lawyer, John Henry Browne, said. "The defence's job is to get as much information as possible. That's what our goal is, in preparation for what is certainly going to be a court martial."
Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. Also on the charge sheet are assault, and using steroids and alcohol while deployed. Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. He is also charged with assault, and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.
In Afghanistan there has been some anger that Bales was sent to the US rather than brought before an Afghan court near the site of the killings. In Afghanistan there has been some anger that Bales was sent to the US rather than brought before an Afghan court near the site of the killings. Sardar Mohammad Nazari, then police chief in Kandahar's Panjwai district, where the massacre took place, said: "The people were very emotional after the killings and came to the district office and said 'We want justice. We want the Americans to hand the soldier over to us and we will punish him ourselves.'"
Sardar Mohammad Nazari, the then police chief in Kandahar's Panjwai district, where the massacre took place, said: "The people were very emotional after the killings and came to the district office and said, 'We want justice. We want the Americans to hand the soldier over to us and we will punish him ourselves.'" Most people in Panjwai district are convinced Bales is guilty of the killings.
Most people in Panjwai are convinced Bales is guilty of the killings. Nazari said he would like to see him executed or imprisoned for life without parole. The attacks were brutal, and some of the bodies were set on fire. Nine of the victims were children, and 11 were from the same family. But Bales remembers little or nothing from that evening, his lawyers say.
"My expectation from the Americans is that they will punish him. Under Islamic law, when someone kills someone he should be hanged. But in America, as I understand, the punishment is life in prison … which would also be acceptable."
But Bales's wife, Kari, in an interview on the eve of the trial, said she did not believe her husband was capable of murder. "My husband did not do this – did not do this," she told ABC News. "I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that my husband is not involved."
The attacks were brutal, and some of the bodies were set on fire. Nine of the victims were children, and 11 were from the same family. But Bales remembers little or nothing from that evening, his lawyers have said.
His wife told ABC she had broken the details of what had happened in the villages to her husband.
She said: "He was, like, 'What? What you talking about?' He had … He knew that something was going on but did not know the extent of what was going on, and I was actually the one that had told him how many people had died, and that included women and children, and he was blown away. He did not know the details as they had been portrayed in the press."