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U.K. soldier charged with Iraqi murder

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In the first case of its kind, a British soldier has been charged with the murder of an Iraqi civilian overruling a decision by the army not to prosecute him. The trial of Kevin Lee Williams, accused of killing an Iraqi lawyer, Hassan Said, in Ad-Dayr in southern Iraq last year, is seen as an embarrassment for the army as it is said to be rare for a soldier to be tried by a civilian court for an alleged offence committed on active duty. In an affidavit, Said's sister has said that her brother was killed when he was driving her and their mother to the doctor on August 3, 2003, but when the case was first reported, Williams' commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Piers Hankinson, cleared him of any wrongdoing.

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