Reservist Pleads Not Guilty in POW’s Death
A Marine Corps reservist pleaded not guilty Monday to attacking an Iraqi prisoner who later died at a U.S. detention facility in southern Iraq.
Sgt. Gary Pittman, 40, is accused of punching and karate-kicking a suspected Baath Party member while the prisoner was handcuffed and had a bag over his head. Nagem Sadoon Hatab, 52, was found dead a day later. An autopsy found seven broken ribs and suggested that Hatab had suffocated from a broken bone in his neck.
On the first day of the court martial, attorneys and the judge, Col. Robert Chester, quizzed prospective jurors to see if they had been influenced by the scandal over mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. Army soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.
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