US soldier on trial over killing of wounded Iraqi

A US tank company commander pleaded not guilty today as he went on trial in Germany on charges related to the killing last year of a critically-wounded Iraqi.

Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, 30, from Chicago, could face a maximum sentence of 20 years and three months if convicted of assault with intent to commit murder. Maynulet, wearing full dress uniform, stood as his lawyer, Capt Will Helixon, entered his plea.

The judge in the case, Col James Pohl, threw out a second charge of dereliction of duty after the defence argued prosecutors had not specified which duty he had neglected.

The charges stemmed from a May 21, 2004, incident when Maynulet was leading his 1st Armoured Division tank company on a patrol near the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where heavy fighting had been reported.

They encountered a car thought to be carrying a driver for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and another militiaman loyal to the cleric. US soldiers chased the vehicle and fired at it, wounding both the driver and passenger.

When a medic pulled the driver out of the car, it was clear he had suffered critical injuries, with part of his skull blown away, according to testimony heard during Maynulet’s Article 32 hearing – the military’s equivalent of a civilian grand jury investigation.

Maynulet’s fellow officers said at the Article 32 hearing that he shot the man in an act of compassion to end his suffering.

Maynulet’s command was suspended on May 25, but he has remained with his unit, serving on the division’s planning staff.

He has not commented on the facts in the case, but lawyer Helixon said when he was arraigned in December that “he maintains that his actions were justified”.

It was not immediately clear whether footage of the incident taken by a US drone surveillance aircraft would be declassified for public view at the court-martial, which is scheduled to run until Friday.