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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned four former security contractors jailed for killing 14 Iraq civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, in a 2007 Baghdad massacre.
“President Trump granted full pardons to Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard,” the White House said in a statement.
The pardons were part of a larger wave of clemencies announced for 15 individuals convicted of a range of crimes, from fraud to perjury.
The four contractors worked for Blackwater (later Academi), a privately-owned military company, when they opened fire on a crowd of people in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in September 2007, killing 14 and injuring at least 17.
The firm was banned from Iraq in 2009.
The massacre took place after a car bomb exploded near a US diplomat, who was under Blackwater protection. The team were sent to evacuate the official before indiscriminately firing at people trying to escape or take cover, according to a document from the US Court of Appeals.
"When the convoy attempted to establish a blockade outside the Green Zone, the situation turned violent, which resulted in the unfortunate deaths and injuries of Iraqi civilians,” the White House said on Tuesday.
Responding to the pardons, the Iraqi foreign ministry said that the Trump administration "did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed" when making its decision.
The pardons were "inconsistent with the US administration's declared commitment to the values of human rights, justice and the rule of law," read the ministry statement published on Wednesday night.
The ministry will use "diplomatic channels to urge it [the US] to reconsider this decision," according to the statement.
Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the pardons, which "show contempt for the rule of law."
"The victims' families finally saw some measure of justice when these men were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to prison. Now justice has been undone by the stroke of a pen," Holewinski said.
One of the dead was nine-year-old Ali Kanani.
His father has called the pardons “indescribable.”
"It's a very bad situation. It's unfortunate," he told Middle East Eye. "But there must be a way. If not in the earthly courts, then with God. God will not let them go."
Initial prosecution against the contractors was dismissed. In 2010, then-Vice President Joe Biden announced he would appeal the decision, saying the US was “determined to hold accountable anyone who commits crimes against the Iraqi people.”
The four were eventually found guilty of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014.
Slatten, the team’s sniper who was the first to open fire, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
“Paul Slough and his colleagues didn’t deserve to spend one minute in prison. I am overwhelmed with emotion at this fantastic news,” the Guardian quoted Brian Heberlig, lawyer of one of the defendants as saying after the pardon was announced.
Trump previously pardoned a former US soldier convicted of killing an Iraqi prisoner.
Updated at 11:55 pm
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