US military jails Iraq deserter

An American soldier who said he left his unit in Iraq in protest at an “oil-driven” war has been sentenced to a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge for desertion.

A military jury at Fort Stewart, Georgia, met for about 20 minutes last night before giving the maximum sentence to Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, an infantry squad leader with the Florida National Guard.

“I have no regrets. Not one,” Mejia said before his sentencing.

In his comments to the jury of four officers and four enlisted soldiers, Mejia said he was not afraid of going to jail. “I will take it because I will go there with my honour, knowing I have done the right thing,” he said.

Mejia, 28, said he refused to return to his unit after two weeks’ leave in October because he believed the war in Iraq was unjust. He turned himself in to the army in March and sought status as a conscientious objector.

He also said he also believed he should have been discharged under a National Guard regulation limiting service of non-US citizens to eight years. Mejia, a citizen of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, served for nine years.

But military prosecutors said Mejia abandoned his troops and did not fulfil his duty.

“He enjoyed all the benefits of the military, just not the duty,” Captain AJ Balbo, the lead prosecutor, said in his closing argument. “The defence says he accomplished all his missions. Except the most important one – showing up.”

Mejia told jurors that one of the turning points for him was an ambush his unit faced in Ramadi, when he said four soldiers were wounded by shrapnel and he saw an Iraqi civilian decapitated by US machine gun fire.

In his objector application, he also claimed he saw Iraqi prisoners treated cruelly when he was put in charge of processing detainees last May at al-Assad, an Iraqi air base occupied by US forces.

He did not mention specific abuse claims during his comments to the jury, but told them that their decision, and the actions of American troops in Iraq, would be noticed around the world.

“I say that we’re all on trial because the world is watching. They’re looking at the decisions we make (such as) war crimes, abuse of prisoners,” he said.

Mejia’s commander in Iraq, Captain Tad Warfel, said the verdict would send a message that “deserters are punished, regardless of what their arguments are or their excuses”.

Mejia was led out of the court by military police with his hands cuffed behind his back to a waiting patrol car. Some civilian supporters shouted words of encouragement, including “Bravo, Camilo!”

Mejia’s application to be an objector is being considered separately.

Mejia is the son of Nicaragua’s most prominent left-wing singer, Carlos Mejia Godoy, who wrote the line: “Let’s fight the Yankee, enemy of humanity” into the country’s former Sandinista anthem.

The line has always proved controversial, and the Sandinistas, who ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1989, later dropped it from the anthem.

His father said last night: “We expected this verdict.” He added: “My son’s situation worsened after he bravely revealed the torture he had witnessed against Iraqis.”