Washington, April 20: Two contractors from the private security firm previously known as Blackwater Worldwide and working for the U.S. Defense Department will not face the death penalty if convicted on charges that they murdered two Afghans in Kabul.
Justin Cannon and Christopher Drotleff were arrested in January and charged with 13 counts related to the shooting deaths of the two Afghans and the wounding of a third person at an intersection in Kabul on May 9, 2009.
U.S. prosecutors told the judge in the case on Monday that they will not seek the death penalty if the two contractors are convicted at trial. The men have pleaded not guilty but, if convicted, they could still face life in prison.
Cannon and Drotleff were working as contractors providing weapons training to the Afghan National Army and were employed by Paravant LLC, a unit of Xe Services, previously Blackwater.
Cannon has said that the shootings were self defense as they drove Afghan translators to their homes in Kabul when they were hit by a speeding car. They opened fire on the car as it tried to make another pass, he said, according to court records.
Prosecutors have a different version of events and say the accused drank alcohol throughout the day at a farewell party for co-workers and left the base without authorization before the car accident and shooting.
In the U.S. government’s version of events, another vehicle approached the scene but turned away when the passengers saw that Cannon and Drotleff were agitated, according to the court records. As that car drove away, the two Americans fired.
One person in the vehicle and another on the street were struck by the gunfire and killed. The other passenger in the vehicle was wounded.
The case is one of several criminal cases related to Blackwater. Last week the firm’s former president and four other former employees were indicted on charges that they falsified documents to hide gifts given to foreign officials and violated other firearms laws and made false statements.
—-Agencies