ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Victims and families of Iraqi civilians who were killed by the American Blackwater security company in Baghdad in 2007 plan to sue outgoing US President Donald Trump who last month granted pardons for the convicted killers, victims told Rudaw this week.
“The decision to release these criminals was wrong. Such a decision should not be made. Where is the international community and human rights [groups] on this decision?” asked Jassim Mohammed, who at the time was working as a courier for the Iraqi Interior Ministry and was injured in the incident.
“We, the injured and families of the martyrs, have agreed to hire a lawyer to sue Trump in international courts for releasing the criminals,” he said.
In Baghdad’s Nisour Square in September 2007 a car bomb exploded near a US diplomat, who was under the protection of Blackwater, a privately-owned military company now known as Academi. A team was sent to evacuate the official when four contractors opened fire, indiscriminately shooting at people trying to escape or take cover, according to court documents.
Fourteen people were killed and at least 17 injured in the massacre. Mohammed was hit in the head and barely survived.
The security firm was banned from Iraq in 2009 and the perpetrators were put on trial back in the US. Nicholas Slatten was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder. Three others, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard, were found guilty of voluntary and attempted manslaughter.
All four were pardoned by Trump as part of a wider wave of clemencies on 22 December.
Saeed Haydar is the uncle of one of the casualties. He was a witness at the Blackwater trial in the US.
“All of us, who were listed as witnesses, went to bear witness. Definitely, most of the witnesses accused the Blackwater company. But what was the use? If an American is killed, would the US be silent? It is really unfortunate for our government to be silent,” he told Rudaw.
Following the pardons, the Iraqi foreign ministry said the Trump administration "did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed" when making its decision.
The ministry said it will use "diplomatic channels to urge it [the US] to reconsider this decision."
United Nations experts on Wednesday condemned the pardons as an “affront to justice.”
The victims said they don’t expect their court case will succeed, but they hope it will at least grant them some emotional relief.
Additional reporting by Halkawt Aziz
