JURIST - Paper Chase: Iraqi justice minister calls for international supervision of Mahmudiya case

[JURIST] Iraq's justice minister called Tuesday for international supervision of the US investigation of the rape and murder of one Iraqi civilian and the murder of three others in Mahmudiya in March. On Monday, US federal prosecutors charged former US Army soldier Steven Green [JURIST report; criminal complaint via FindLaw] in connection with the incident. Four other currently-serving soldiers are being held pending the outcome of a military criminal probe [JURIST report]. Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli, a Sunni, said:

If this act actually happened, it constitutes an ugly and unethical crime, monstrous and inhuman...The Iraqi judiciary should be informed about this investigation which should be conducted under supervision of international and human organizations. Those involved should face justice.

He added: "The ugliness of this crime demands a swift intervention of the UN Security Council to stop these violations of human rights and to condemn them so that they will not happen again."

A leading Baghdad newspaper echoed concerns that punishment for any US personnel found guilty would be slight. Azzaman [media website], the country's largest daily, suggested in an editorial that the rape "summarizes what has been going in Iraq for the past years not only by the American occupation army, but also by some Iraqi groups," predicting that "The US Army will conduct an investigation and the result at best is already known. One or two US soldiers will receive a 'touristic punishment' and the whole crime will be forgotten as it happened with Abu Ghraib criminals." Al Bawaba has more.