Iraqis respond with dismay to ex-GI's sentence
Steven Green was sentenced to life without parole by a U.S. federal jury for his role in the rape of an Iraqi teenager and the killing of her and family members in 2006. Iraqis say it's too lenient.
Reporting from Mahmoudiya, Iraq — Iraqis responded with dismay and outrage Friday to the decision by a federal jury in Kentucky to spare the life of a U.S. soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi girl near this dusty town south of Baghdad three years ago.
Steven Dale Green, 24, of Midland, Texas, was sentenced to life without parole Thursday for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Kassem Hamza Janabi, and also for killing her parents and 6-year-old sister at their home on March 12, 2006.
"This sentence is unjust, and we in our tribe feel displeasure, dissatisfaction and disappointment indeed," said Mahdi Obaid Janabi, 56, an elder from the Janabi tribe, to which the family belonged.
He said tribal leaders plan to meet to demand that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki put pressure on the U.S. government to somehow impose the death penalty on Green, who was tried by a civilian court in Paducah because he had been discharged from the army by the time charges were brought.
"The government must move. . . . They must claim back the honor of the family," he said.
As much as any of the abuses known to have been committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, this crime has resonated in the Iraqi national consciousness for its brutality and callousness. Green and four other soldiers had been drinking whiskey and playing cards while they formulated their plan to attack the girl. Federal prosecutors said the assailants went to the house, held the girl down, took turns raping her, shot the family then set fire to the house in an attempt to cover up the incident. The four other soldiers have been given prison sentences of between five and 110 years.
As the ringleader of the group, Green "deserved worse than the death penalty," said Iyad Shaibani, 49, an engineer from Mahmoudiya. "If an Iraqi had committed a similar crime in the United States, the punishment would have been harsher and no excuses would have been accepted."
The sentence will have an impact on Iraqis' perceptions of American troops ahead of a referendum due to be held this summer on whether to accept the security pact signed between the U.S. and Iraq in December, Shaibani said.
"I think Iraqis are no longer willing to see Americans on their land as they think that such incidents will be repeated," he said. "Iraqis in general are very angry about this. You can see the resentment everywhere."
