- FORT STEWART, Ga.
(Reuters) -- A U.S. soldier who said he saw prisoners being abused in Iraq
was convicted of desertion on Friday for failing to return to his unit
after taking leave to the United States last year.
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- Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, a member of the Florida National
Guard, was sentenced by an eight-member military panel to the maximum penalty
of one year in prison and a bad conduct discharge. His pay was reduced
by two-thirds to $795 a month.
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- Mejia, a nine-year U.S. Army veteran, was deployed to
Iraq early last year and took a two-week furlough to the United States
in October. He was gone for five months before surrendering to Army officials
in March. He has filed an application for conscientious objector status.
-
- Before the trial, Mejia made statements to the press
in which he cited abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but he did not address that
subject during the trial because the judge ruled it was not relevant to
his case.
-
- However, in remarks to the court before his sentencing,
Mejia said fighters in battle can lose perspective of the value of human
life.
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- "I sit here a free man because I did the right thing,"
Mejia said. "I have no regrets. All of us in uniform are on trial.
The world is watching."
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- He testified on Thursday that he "had problems in
Iraq" and decided to seek status as a conscientious objector.
-
- During the trial at Fort Stewart in Georgia, where Mejia
has been detained, the 28-year-old also said he had sought to be discharged
from the Army under a regulation that prohibits non-U.S. citizens from
serving more than eight years.
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- Mejia has dual Nicaraguan and Costa Rican nationality.
-
-
- The abuse of prisoners in Iraq by American soldiers has
rocked the U.S. military, sparked worldwide outrage that has battered the
image of the United States and triggered a series of probing hearings by
Congressional committees.
-
- This week the first U.S. soldier to be court-martialed
in the scandal was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to
abusing Iraqi prisoners.
-
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