US Marine Medic Pleads Guilty To Kidnapping In Iraq

Times Online and AP , 06.10.06

A US Navy medic has pleaded guilty to kidnapping an Iraqi civilian and is expected to testify against seven other Marines accused of murdering the man earlier this year.

Petty Officer 3rd Class, Melson J. Bacos, 21, was one of eight servicemen accused of kidnapping and murdering Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a 52-year-old Iraqi man, in the town of Hamdania in western Iraq on April 26.

In return for pleading guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy, the other charges against him will be dropped. If found guilty, the other seven Marines face life imprisonment.

According to court documents, the Marines, members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, entered Hamdania searching for an insurgent and, failing to find him, grabbed Awad from his home and shot him.

An AK-47 and a shovel were left by Awad’s body, apparently to make it look like the man had been digging a hole for a roadside bomb and was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

PO Bacos, a medic on patrol with the Marines, was accused of firing the AK-47 into the air as part of the cover-up. He was the first of the eight men to appear before a court-martial.
Military prosecutors had charged him under the theory that he did nothing to stop the alleged crime.

PO Bacos’s testimony would mark a sudden change in the case and could presage further guilty charges from the other accused men, who are being held in a military jail at Camp Pendleton, California, along with the Marines accused of taking part in the alleged massacre in Haditha.
Since deciding to co-operate with military prosecutors, PO Bacos, who was awarded the Purple Heart on his first deployment to Iraqi in July 2004, has been moved to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar for his own safety.

David Brahms, a defence lawyer for one of the other Marines accused in the case, said PO Bacos will be subjected to intense cross-examination should he be called as a government witness against his client: "This is just one guy who is going to tell the story as he sees it."