A former Blackwater security guard whose 2014 murder conviction was vacated on appeal was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday, ending the Justice Department’s long pursuit of accountability for a 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Baghdad that drew international condemnation during the Iraq War, the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington said.

A federal jury deliberated five days before finding Nicholas A. Slatten, 35, guilty of first-degree murder after a five-week trial in Washington, D.C.

It was the third time since 2014 that Slatten was on trial over the deaths at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad’s Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007.

The outcome brings a muted end to an incident that triggered diplomatic and humanitarian protests over the U.S. government’s use of private military forces and marked one of the lowest points of the Iraq War.

Prosecutors alleged Slatten, of Sparta, Tenn., fired the first shots and intentionally set off a shooting rampage that killed or injured 31 civilians, beginning with the death of the driver of a white Kia, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y, 19.

Read More...

Related Articles:

A U.S. appeals court on Friday dismissed the first-degree murder charge against a former Blackwater employee, Nicholas A. Slatten, and ordered re-sentencings for three others convicted in the case. Blackwater killed 17 Iraqi civilians during a 2007 assault on a Baghdad public square. Four of the guards were later convicted in U.S. court of either murder or manslaughter charges as a result of the incident after a 12-person jury found the men guilty of opening fire on the Iraqis denying them a retrial.