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Biden says US to appeal Blackwater court decision
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Biden says US to appeal Blackwater court decision
AFP - Sunday, January 24
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US Vice President Joe Biden (left) meets with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad. Biden has announced an appeal into a US court decision to drop charges against an American firm whose security guards are accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
BAGHDAD (AFP) - – Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday announced an appeal into a US court decision to drop charges against an American firm whose security guards are accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
"A dismissal is not an acquittal," Biden told reporters during a visit to Baghdad, referring to the case involving the five guards employed by the private company formerly known as Blackwater.
"Today I am announcing that the United States government will appeal this decision. Our justice department will file that appeal next week," he said.
The five guards, who had been part of a convoy of armoured vehicles, had been charged with killing the civilians and wounding 18 others in an attack using guns and grenades at Baghdad's busy Nisur square in September 2007.
Charges against the Blackwater employees were dismissed last year, when a judge ruled US prosecutors violated their rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a State Department probe.
The ruling outraged the Baghdad government which maintains that 17 people were killed.
"The United States is determined to hold to account anyone who commits crimes against Iraqi people," Biden added.
"While we fully respect the independence and the integrity of the US judicial system, we were disappointed with the judge's decision to dismiss the indictment which was based on the way some evidence had been acquired."
The Iraqi government said this week it was considering lodging its own complaint against Blackwater, which has since been renamed Xe, to seek compensation for the families of the victims.
In his ruling on December 31, US federal judge Ricardo Urbina found prosecutors violated the guards' rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during the US State Department probe.
The decision was welcomed by the US company, but several senators including 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain have since voiced regret at the ruling and called for a US government appeal.
But the admissibility of the Iraqi government complaint is uncertain because all of the families except one agreed damages from Xe, according to a lawyer injured in the incident.
The lawyer, Hassan Jabbar Salman, said the families of those killed were offered 100,000 dollars and those wounded received between 20,000 and 50,000 dollars from the US security firm.
Blackwater Worldwide changed its name in February 2009, following what the company said was a change of business focus.
Critics however suggested that the rebranding was an effort to polish an image tarnished by an alleged culture of lawlessness and lack of accountability among Blackwater workers as they carried out their duties in Iraq.
Biden, President Barack Obama's pointman on Iraq, arrived in Baghdad late on Friday.
The main thrust of his visit was to defuse a row over the banning of hundreds of candidates from a March 7 general election over their alleged links to executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
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