Red Cap murders: Baghdad court clears Iraqi pair

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

As hordes of gunmen surged towards the compound where he and six Royal Military Police had taken refuge, Iraqi police sergeant Hamid Masoud urged the trapped Red Caps to escape with him through a back window.

Their response, revealed by Masoud in court, was: "Our honour code doesn't allow us to run like cowards. We didn't hurt these people and we will stay."

It was the last time Masoud saw any of them alive. Today, after seven years of delays and a succession of dropped charges, two of the alleged killers finally faced trial in Baghdad – but were acquitted in less than three hours.

All of the witnesses testified before the high criminal court that they had not seen who killed the soldiers during the rampage in the southern Iraqi town of Majar al-Kabir on 24 June 2003. All said they had seen and heard the gunmen approach, but none saw the moment of death.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/iraq-red-cap-murders-court

[Jumping John]

1. GW Bush should have been among the defendants. N/T