"LandepNews"
U.S. Sergeant R. Bales
The lawyer John Henry Browne said that the U.S. forces were “hiding evidence” from defense team as the U.S. government has not turned over files to the defense team. He added that the injured in the incident created by their client were supposed to be interrogated but that they were released before the team of lawyers got to them.
Browne said that when the team of defense wanted to talk to the injured in the Kandahar Hospital, they were denied access and were told to coordinate with the prosecution team. He said they were informed that the prosecution had spoken to the injured soon after that happened, and that they were released from the hospital and that there was no way to contact them.
The lawyer said that the government was withholding evidence while the potential witnesses are scattering, and the prosecution will not even show defense the surveillance images captured by a camera at the base, that is said to show how the man surrendered to the authorities after the killing. The only reason, the lawyer speculated, why the state is doing this is because it has no evidence to convict his client.
An army spokesman said that the prosecution would provide defense with evidence in accordance with court-martial and military rules of evidence. Within these guidelines, he added, the prosecution has been communicating with the defense.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that these were the procedures to be followed and that Robert Bales will have access to the evidence he is entitled to under these procedures.
At a news conference on Friday Browne said that the state was under no legal obligation to provide him with any information for the time being, but that he had been led to believe he would receive more assistance.
He added that being provided with evidence at a later date would not work, especially in a case like this, when talking to the witnesses is very important. He said he had been promised more cooperation than he was already enjoying.
The lawyer disclosed that the military wants to conduct a comprehensible mental health evaluation of the sergeant at the Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas. He said that the evaluation is already under way and that it would take place within next two months, which would delay the overall procedures.
Robert Bales has been charged on March 24 with 17 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of aggravated assault and a number of violations of the military regulations. He was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The 17th murder charge is believed to be caused by the fact that he killed an unborn child in the womb of his mother.
No date has been set for the trial, and American prosecution is preparing its case, while John Henry Browne and his team is preparing defense. The military justice requires a preliminary hearing called the “Article 32” hearing, which would determine whether there is a strong case to proceed to the court martial. If found guilty, Robert Bales could face death penalty.
The defense team has people working in the field in Kandahar, where they are facing “almost complete information blackout” from the government, which has a devastating effect on the defense.
Browne said that a reliable account of what happened that night has not emerged yet, and that the people in the villages had said that Bales had not acted alone. There were speculations that he had left the base twice.
The lawyer said that neither story can be confirmed or infirmed as long as there is no possibility to investigate. He said that the investigators spoke to some of the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but that they did not get to talk to the people in the villages where the tragedy happened.
Robert Bales is accused that on the night of March 11 he went out of his base into a village where he killed six people in their sleep. He is said to have come to base and then return to another village where he killed 11. Nine of the people he killed were children. He dragged some of the bodies outside and burnt them. After that he is said to have returned to base and surrendered.
WorldNews MSNBC reports that one of his journalists, Yalda Hakim, a journalist that was born in Afghanistan and immigrated in Australia, was the first to interview the surviving witnesses.
She said she was not allowed by the American authorities to interview children on the grounds that this could traumatize her. Hakim is said to have appealed to the village elders who arranged a meeting.
She took a video record in which the children told her that there were other Americans present the night of the rampage, and that they were holding flashlights in the yard.
A girl said that the shooter first shot her father’s dog then he shot her father in the foot and dragged her mother by the hair. When her father started screaming, he shot her father, then he turned his gone on the girl and shot her in the leg.
She said that one man entered the house and the others were standing in the yard. A brother of one victim said that the children of the victim said that there was more than one soldiers. The number advanced by the children were 15-20.
There were also speculations that the man acted alone, and that he was extracted by other soldiers, when the base realized that he was missing. The American army has denied the participation of other soldiers, emphasizing that he acted alone.
MSNBC also reports that the killing spree occurred one day after an American soldier was victim to a roadside mine which cost him a leg. Villagers told reporters that U.S. troops lined up men against a wall and told them they would pay a price for it. the American army denies such allegations.
An Afghan general assigned by president Hamid Karzai to investigate the situation and the circumstances of the killings told Hakim that he was wondering too whether there was one shooter or more than one.
Karimi told Hakim that the village elders told him that there were more soldiers and that there were even boot prints to back their claim. He said that they had told him that they had seen three or four soldiers kneeling and that helicopters were there all the time.
When asked whether the helicopters had come to extract him, he said that they had been present since the beginning of the rampage. The same skepticism was manifested by members of the parliament in Kabul, who demanded that Bales be judged in a public trial on Afghan territory.
The lawmakers have conditioned the negotiation over the future of the American presence on Afghan territory after the scheduled withdrawal that will be completed by 2014 on the trial of Robert Bales in Afghanistan, as the families of the victims have demanded.
The shocking even having 38-year-old American sergeant as perpetrator has produced a wave of rage throughout Afghanistan and compelled the American army to take extreme precautions.
Hamid Karzai, who said that the event would not be forgotten, was successful in curving the public outrage and preventing the further escalation of tension between Americans and Afghans, which had been fueled by an incidental burn of Quran copies a few weeks before at a military base at Bagram.
Still, the American military had to introduce special regulations at the bases with mixed personnel, as the Afghan soldiers were turning against their American comrades and killing them.
“Guardian angels” were assigned by general John Allen, the commander of the coalition in Afghanistan, to all U.S. soldiers working with Afghans. They were to watch over their colleagues while they were sleeping, training or working. The Americans working in offices of the Afghan government were allowed to carry guns and were instructed not to have offices facing the door.
The Afghan forces also took precautions, especially in regards to recruiting the new officers, since it has been noted that many Taliban infiltrated their ranks, some of them being responsible for what happened to the American soldiers.
On Friday, a member of the Afghan Local Police shot nine of his colleagues as they were asleep and then took their guns and went away. The Taliban claimed that the man had been one of them.
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