Blackwater pardons worry rights office
BERLIN — The United Nations’ human-rights office said Wednesday that it’s “deeply concerned” by President Donald Trump’s pardons of four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead.
The pardons were among 15 that the Trump administration announced Tuesday.
Supporters of the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide had lobbied for pardons, saying the men had been excessively punished in an investigation and prosecution tainted by problems, with exculpatory evidence being withheld.
“These four individuals were given sentences ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment, including on charges of first-degree murder,” U.N. human-rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said in a statement. “Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future.”
The case caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone.
The killings occurred at Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in September 2007, when the men — former veterans working as contractors for the State Department — opened fire at a crowded traffic circle.
Prosecutors argued that the heavily armed Blackwater convoy opened an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. Defense lawyers said their clients returned fire after being ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.