US medic jailed for role in Iraqi's death

A US medic who helped kidnap an Iraqi grandfather later killed execution-style by an American squad has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, but will end up serving a year under a plea deal.

Military judge Colonel Steven Folsom has given the sentence after Petty Officer Melson Bacos, 21, said his patrol leader's anger at the release of a suspected "terrorist" from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison prompted the murder of the man's neighbour.

Bacos agreed to a plea deal earlier today in which he agreed to testify in exchange for a lesser sentence.

The judge appeared surprised to learn the plea deal set a year limit on the sentence and also nullified his earlier sentencing that called for a dishonourable discharge.

The judge learned the details of the plea agreement on sentencing only after announcing his ruling.

Bacos and seven Marines on an April patrol in Hamdania, Iraq, were charged with kidnapping 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a father of 11, killing him and placing an AK-47 and shovel next to his body to suggest he was trying to plant a roadside bomb.

Honour 'gone'

"I wanted to be part of the team - I wanted to be loyal," Bacos said.

"Now I feel as though my honour is gone and I have let down others who have looked up to me - I apologise to our country.

"I also ask forgiveness from the Iraqi family we have done this to."

The killing in the middle of the night in Hamdania is one in a series of incidents in which the conduct of American troops in Iraq has damaged the country's image worldwide.

Shedding new light on the death, Bacos told Col Folsom that squad leader Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III had devised the plan to kill a different Iraqi who was "a known high-value individual whom he had detained who was later released from Abu Ghraib".

In videotaped testimony, Mr Awad's two brothers served heavily armed US investigators tea and said their deceased brother worked as a policeman from 1969 to 1990 before injury forced his retirement.

They also introduced his 11 children and said he had four grandchildren.

Other Camp Pendleton-based Marines are under investigation in a separate incident in November 2005 in which 24 civilians were killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha.

- Reuters