A US soldier convicted of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl and
killing her family last year has been sentenced to 110 years in
prison, the military said Saturday.
Private First Class Jesse Spielman, 23, was convicted late
Friday by a military court at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky of rape,
conspiracy to commit rape, housebreaking with intent to rape and
four counts of felony murder.
Spielman was among five soldiers charged in the March 2006
attack on the family in Mahmoudiya, a village about 32 km south of
Baghdad. He received the longest sentence of four soldiers who have
been convicted.
On March 12, 2006, five American soldiers, all from the 101st
Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, saw 14-year-old Abeer
Qassim al-Janabi in Mahmoudiya, and conspired to rape the girl,
prosecutors said.
They then broke into Janabi's home, killed her parents and
six-year-old sister, and raped and murdered her. Later, they put
kerosene on the girl's body and set it on fire to destroy
evidence.
Spielman had pleaded guilty Monday to lesser charges of
conspiracy to obstructing justice, arson, wrongfully touching a
corpse and drinking, but not guilty of raping and murder. The
110-year sentence was said to be part of a plea agreement between
his attorneys and the prosecutors.
One of the soldiers involved in the gang rape case, James
Barker, was sentenced to 90 years in jail in November last year
under a plea agreement, and has agreed to testify against the
others in the case. Two other soldiers have also pleaded guilty and
have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to 100
years.
The fifth defendant, former soldier Steven Green, has been
charged in a federal court because he was discharged from the Army
before the murder allegations surfaced. He has pleaded not guilty
to charges including murder and sexual assault.
Prosecutors have said that they would seek death for Green, the
mastermind of the crime. Two of his accomplices have testified that
Green shot and killed Janabi's parents and sister while they were
gang-raping her. He then killed Janabi after their sexual
assaults.
(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2007)
