Sunday, April 1, 2012

Lawyer says U.S. blocks investigation of Afghan massacre

SEATTLE (Reuters)-the defense of the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan citizens lawyer claims US authorities blocking its ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, Staff Sergeant Robert Balen's lawyer, said the American troops in Afghanistan have prevented his team interviewing wounded civilians in a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to spread, making it difficult to detect them.

"My stomach is the reason is that they don't have much of a case," said Browne at a press conference in his Office in downtown Seattle on Friday.

Bales last week was formally charged with the murder of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on 11 March, which further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations already strained by a decade of war.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

No date has been set for a process, but U.S. military prosecutors are putting together their case while Browne prepares his defense.

Browne said he has a team of researchers in Afghanistan now, but they are little cooperation of military prosecutors who receive the cost posted.

"We are faced with an almost complete information from the Government, that blackout a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he said in a statement released earlier on Friday.

A reliable account of the events of the night of the massacre is not yet revealed. A recent report indicated Afghan villagers doubt Bales acted alone. Other reports suggest Bales left his base twice during the night.

"I do not believe that that is the case, but we cannot say that for sure," Browne said on Friday.

Browne said that his researchers had spoken to American soldiers in Afghanistan, but had not can contact any witnesses.

"If we tried to treat wounded civilians in Kandahar hospital we were refused entry and told to coordinate with the prosecution team interview," said Browne in the earlier statement.

"The next day the prosecution team interviewed citizens injured. We discovered shortly after the interviews of the persecution of the wounded civilians that the citizens were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them. " That means that potential witnesses could prove unattainable, will scatter and Browne said.

Browne said it was too early to say whether his defence would rely on post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD or other psychiatric problems that Bale may have suffered as a defense against the charges.

The next step in the case of balen-which is held in a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas-undergo a mental assessment by army doctors independent of both the prosecution and defense, to determine whether he fits passive process, known as a "mental health board ' in the army. That could take several months, said Browne.

After that has occurred, the military justice system requires a first hearing, known as an "article 32" hearing, to determine if there is a strong enough case to proceed to a court martial.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Todd Eastham and Paul Sim?o)


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