An 18-year-old Afghan Saturday said he told the hearing of a US soldier accused of massacring 16 villagers in southern Afghanistan that he saw an American soldier shoot his father in their home.
Speaking to AFP, Faizullah Naim said he had given evidence via videolink from Kandahar to the hearing of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 39, accused of drinking whisky and watching a violent movie before going on the deadly rampage in March this year.
“I told the court about that night,” Faizullah said. “I told them that I was asleep when I was awoken by screaming and when I went to the other room, I saw one American soldier who shot my father (Haji Naim) and then left the room.
“There were lights form other soldiers behind the shooter,” he added, suggesting that the attacker had not been alone on the night of March 11 in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province.
Bales was present at the hearing at Fort Lewis-McChord, near Seattle, Washington, which heard from five Afghan civilians and two soldiers, according to Faizullah and his younger brother Sidiqullah, who also gave evidence.
“We explained everything to the court,” Sidiqullah, whose injured father has already testified, said.
“The judge was listening to us very carefully, and asked us some questions about that night, about what we were doing when it happened…how we reacted and other details, and we explained every detail that we have already told media and journalists a hundred times.”
The hearings, scheduled to last until November 16, are expected to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to court martial Bales, where he would risk the death penalty.
According to the military prosecutor, Joseph Morse, Bales drank whisky and watched an action movie with his friends before leaving the base twice to carry out the killings, which would be the deadliest committed by an American soldier during the Afghan conflict.
Bales’s lawyer and wife have said he has no recollection of events, but Lieutenant Colonel Morse said on Monday that Bales was “lucid, coherent and cooperative,” adding that the accused had admitted his crimes by calling them “terrible, really terrible”.
Afghan tells US soldier hearing of night father was shot
