An alleged terrorist accused in the grisly murders of four Americans appeared in court\u00a0Wednesday in Iraq. But Ahmed Hashim Abed isn\u2019t the one on trial. Instead, he was testifying against one of the Navy Seals who arrested him last September.<\/p>\n
Petty Officer First Class Julio Huertas of Blue Island, Illinois, is being tried at a military base on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Huertas and two other Navy Seals face charges in connection with Abed\u2019s arrest, during which the prisoner claims he was punched and kicked by at least one of his captors.<\/p>\n
The case has prompted a huge outpouring of sympathy in the U.S., with thousands visiting websites in support of the Navy Seals. Many claim the four defendants should be hailed as heroes for capturing Abed instead of being court marshaled. At least 20 members of the U.S. Congress have urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates to drop all the charges.<\/p>\n
In court Tuesday, Abed described the surprise raid on his home last year. He say he was with his wife at the time. He says he was blindfolded and taken to an unknown location and questioned. He told the court there was no abuse during the first questioning or at a second location where he was later taken. At a third location, however, Abed claims he was hit on his shoulders and back, then punched in to the stomach, causing him to fall on his face. While on the floor, he says he heard yelling and swearing.<\/p>\n
The accused terrorist was handcuffed and blindfolded at the time and says he can\u2019t identify anyone who might have hit him. He only remembers seeing someone wearing red shorts. Photos of Abed taken ten days after the alleged incident were also shown in court, but according to a Fox News representative inside the courtroom, the injuries did not look severe.<\/p>\n
Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe of Perrysberg, Ohio, is the only Navy Seal actually charged with assault in the case. His attorney, Neal Puckett, says on his website, \u201cThese terrorists are trained to claim abuse despite no physical evidence of such.\u201d McCabe goes on trial May 3rd in Norfolk, VA.<\/p>\n
Also in court in Baghdad, a Navy officer testified that he witnessed McCabe assaulting Abed. Petty Officer Third Class Kevin Demartino, who is not a Navy Seal, said he saw McCabe punch Abed in the stomach and saw blood coming from the prisoner\u2019s mouth. Demartino was silent about the case at first, saying in court, \u201cI wasn\u2019t prepared to rat those guys out.\u201d But after he learned there would be a formal investigation, he decided to cooperate with the prosecution.<\/p>\n
McCabe is charged with assault, dereliction of duty and making false statements. Huertas is charged with dereliction of duty and impeding an investigation. A third Navy Seal, Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, is charged only with dereliction of duty. He faces trial later this week in Baghdad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An alleged terrorist accused in the grisly murders of four Americans appeared in court\u00a0Wednesday in Iraq. But Ahmed Hashim Abed isn\u2019t the one on trial. Instead, he was testifying against one of the Navy Seals who arrested him last September. Petty Officer First Class Julio Huertas of Blue Island, Illinois, is being tried at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6604,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-537183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}