Charges Against Troops in Iraqi’s Death Dropped

A judge in Colchester, England, dismissed murder charges against seven soldiers accused of killing an Iraqi civilian, ruling that some witnesses had lied and that evidence was insufficient.

The soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, had faced a court-martial in connection with the death of Nadhem Abdullah on May 11, 2003, in Uzayr in southern Iraq.

The prosecutor said Abdullah was an innocent teenager who died after a violent beating. But Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett said that “the main Iraqi witnesses had colluded to exaggerate and lie.”