SEALs should face accuser during trials, military judge rules

NORFOLK

If the government won’t bring a suspected Iraqi terrorist to the United States to testify about alleged abuse at the hands of a Navy SEAL, the trials of two commandos accused of not safeguarding him will be held in Iraq, a military judge ruled Monday.

In back-to-back hearings at Norfolk Naval Station, Cmdr. Tierney Carlos said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas each deserve to face their accuser – alleged terrorist Ahmed Hashim Abed.

Keefe and Huertas are both charged with dereliction of duty for not protecting Abed, who was captured in September in Fallujah. Abed is thought to be connected to the 2004 killings of four Blackwater contractors whose bodies were burned and hung from a bridge.

Carlos scheduled their courts-martial for successive weeks in April at Camp Victory, a military base near Baghdad .

A hearing for Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, the commando accused of punching Abed shortly after his capture, is scheduled for Wednesday before a different military judge.

Both Keefe and Huertas also are charged with giving a false statement to an investigator, and Huertas is accused of impeding an official investigation. All the charges are misdemeanors that carry a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge.

The three commandos, assigned to SEAL Team 10 in Virginia Beach, did not accept non-judicial punishment for their alleged wrongdoing and chose to face courts-martial.

Thousands of supporters have rallied on their behalf on the social networking Web site Facebook, and several members of Congress have questioned the decision to proceed with courts-martial.

Gregory McCormack, Keefe’s civilian defense lawyer, has pushed the government to make Abed available to testify, something officials apparently balked at. In the meantime, Army Gen. C.T. Cleveland, head of U.S. Special Operations Command Central and the person who decided the SEALs should face trial, issued an order for Abed to provide testimony about what happened through a deposition.

Carlos said he couldn’t stop the inquiry but would not allow it to be used as a substitute for Abed’s testimony at trial, which is now scheduled for April 5. If Abed, who is being held in U.S. custody, is available to give a deposition, Carlos said, then he should be available to testify at the trial.

In both hearings, Carlos explained that moving the trial to Iraq complicated logistics but is necessary to preserve the accused men’s rights. Camp Victory has lodging and dining facilities available to handle the case, he said, and a jury can be assembled from the sailors serving there.

Monica Lombardi, Huertas’ civilian attorney, came to court prepared to fight prosecutors’ motion to delay the trial. That wasn’t necessary after Carlos’ ruling to hold the court-martial in Iraq, tentatively scheduled for April 15.

“I want the members of the jury to see this witness, this terrorist, and they can judge for themselves if he’s telling the truth,” Lombardi said.

She said she still hasn’t seen much of the evidence the government has assembled against her client, including pictures of the alleged abuse.

The name of a second accuser – a fellow sailor whose testimony Huertas is accused of trying to influence – also surfaced during the hearing.

Lombardi said Petty Officer 3rd Class Kevin Demartino, who was helping to guard the detainee, made five separate statements about what happened.

“Each time, he tells a different version of events,” Lombardi said.

Kate Wiltrout, 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com