US News

US military withholding evidence in Afghan shootings, lawyer says

The US military is withholding evidence gathered so far in its investigation of an American soldier accused in the mass killing of 17 Afghan civilians earlier this month, the soldier’s lawyer said Friday.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 38, was charged last week with 17 counts of premeditated murder, as well as aggravated assault and the attempted murder of six other Afghans. He potentially faces the death penalty.

Nine children were among those killed in the March 11 killing spree in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province.

John Henry Browne, a lawyer for Bales, said the defense has been denied access to civilians who were injured in the attack and were being treated at Kandahar Hospital, as well as their medical records.

Military prosecutors also are withholding the “entire investigative file” and have refused to allow the defense team to review a video of Bales allegedly taken from a blimp the night of the killings.

“We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client,” Browne said.

Bales is being held at a military detention center in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Under military regulations, court-martial cases generally must go to trial within 120 days of formal charges being filed. However, complex cases often take longer.

Browne has said that Bales doesn’t have a full recollection of the day the killings took place and has described his client’s state of mind as “confused.”

To read more, go to The Wall Street Journal.