U.S. ‘hiding evidence,’ soldier’s lawyer says
SEATTLE— The attorney for the U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians said Friday the U.S. government is “hiding evidence” from the soldier’s defence team. John Henry Browne said members of the defence team in Afghanistan were told they would have access to witnesses at a hospital, but they later discovered the people had been released. He also said the U.S. government has not turned over files to the lawyers defending army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.
“What they are basically doing is hiding evidence,” he said. “The only reason to hide evidence is if you don’t have evidence.”
The army says officials have been following procedures and communicating with Bales’ defence team.
Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. U.S. military officials have said he was drinking on a southern Afghanistan base on March 11 before going to two villages at night, shooting his victims and setting many on fire. Nine were children.
Meanwhile on Friday, a member of an Afghan militia promoted by the U.S. military to protect rural villages drugged his colleagues and killed at least nine of them as they slept, the third deadly episode involving the guard force in March, the New York Times reported.
The killings added to concerns about the militia, known as the Afghan Local Police. Touted by U.S. military commanders as a way to give Afghans a larger stake in fighting the insurgency, the police program has been assailed by rights advocates and Afghans as bringing former Taliban and criminal elements into positions of armed authority.