CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) Military authorities began their trial Monday of a Marine reserve sergeant charged with assaulting an Iraqi POW who later died, and a judge ruled the defense could present testimony that contradicts a key witness.
The court-martial of Reserve Sgt. Gary Pittman in the death of Nagem Sadoon Hatab is the first court-martial known to be connected to the death of a prisoner in Iraq. Opening statements were expected to be presented Monday afternoon.
Hatab's death was the first that U.S. military authorities acknowledged. Hatab died two days after his capture in June 2003 at Camp Whitehorse, a makeshift lockup in southern Iraq that has since been closed.
Pittman, 40, sat quietly in a small courtroom Monday as 13 fellow Marines, all from this base north of San Diego, underwent questioning to form the panel of at least five jurors who will hear the case.
The 13 men are all officers; 12 have been deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom with at least one returning home as recently as last month. Two of the men are black, as is Pittman.
The judge in the case, Col. Robert Chester, advised the men the case should not be confused with well-publicized allegations of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Attorneys questioned the men for indications of potential bias, asking whether they had seen media coverage of the case, most had. They also asked if the potential jurors were familiar with the Geneva Convention; whether they believe Iraqi prisoners should be considered different from other prisoners of war; and whether they would be influenced by the fact a witness had been granted immunity from prosecution.
According to a fellow Marine who has been granted immunity, Pittman karate-kicked the handcuffed, hooded Hatab in the chest so hard that he flew three feet before hitting the floor.
Col. Chester granted a motion Monday by Pittman's lawyer John Tranberg that will let a doctor testify that the markings on Hatab's body weren't consistent with a kick to the chest.
Tranberg said the doctor also will testify that it would be impossible for such a kick to break ribs on both sides of a person's body.
A list was 40 witnesses was read Monday, nearly all members of the 2nd battalion, 25th Marines, the New York-based reserve unit to which most of the Marines involved belonged. The case is expected to last three weeks.
Pittman, who in civilian life was a guard at a Brooklyn federal prison, is one of three men charged in Hatab's eventual death.
An autopsy concluded that Hatab had seven broken ribs and slowly suffocated from a crushed windpipe. The accused Marines and their lawyers say Hatab died of natural causes, perhaps from an asthma attack.
Pittman could receive more than three years in a military prison if found guilty on multiple counts of assault and dereliction of duty. More than 40 witnesses are scheduled to testify at his court-martial, which is expected to last about three weeks.
Hatab, 52, is among 37 Iraqi and Afghan prisoners whose deaths are being investigated. His was the only one to occur at Camp Whitehorse, outside Nasiriyah.
He had been rumored to be an official of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Baath party and part of the ambush of a U.S. Army convoy that killed 11 soldiers and led to the capture of Pfc. Jessica Lynch and five others. Within 48 hours of his arrest, a guard found a lifeless Hatab lying naked and covered in his own waste in a yard.
At preliminary hearings, Col. William Gallo found that Hatab and another inmate received ``arbitrary beatings'' from Pittman and Lance Cpl. William Roy, a county jail guard from Troy, N.Y.
Roy, who testified under immunity, said Pittman karate-kicked Hatab in the chest.
Maj. Clarke Paulus, who commanded the detention center at Camp Whitehorse and whose general court-martial is scheduled to begin next month, allegedly authorized a Marine to grab Hatab by the neck to drag him to a holding pen. He faces a court-martial next month on charges of charges of dereliction of duty, assault and maltreatment. A third man, Whitehorse base commander Maj. Michael Froeder, faces charges of negligence and abuse of prisoners.
Eight Marines originally were charged with crimes ranging from dereliction of duty to negligent homicide. However, Gallo found that while Hatab had been illegally assaulted, it could not be determined who caused his death.
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