US soldier found guilty in Iraq rape, murder

CHICAGO, Aug 4 (Reuters) A US military court has found an American soldier guilty in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family, and will sentence him today, the Army said.

The guilty verdict against Pvt. Jesse Spielman, 22, was delivered by a jury late yesterday and followed a weeklong court-martial at Ft Campbell Kentucky. He was one of five soldiers charged in the March 2006 attack on the family in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.

Spielman, the court found, participated in the planning of the attack as the soldiers drank whiskey and played cards, and acted as a lookout.

He was found guilty of four counts of murder, rape, conspiracy to commit rape, housebreaking with the intent to commit rape, and conspiracy to commit rape.

At the start of the hearing, he pleaded guilty to wrongful touching of a corpse, arson, obstructing justice and violating rules against drinking alcohol in a war zone.

Sgt Paul Cortez and Spc James Barker have pleaded guilty in the case and were sentenced to 90 years and 100 years in prison, respectively. The accused ringleader, former Pvt Steven Green, was discharged from the Army for a ''personality disorder'' and awaits trial in a civilian court. He faces a possible death sentence.

Cortez and Barker, who both testified at Spielman's court-martial, admitted raping the girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabiat, and said Green shot her parents and younger sister. Green then raped the girl and killed her, and they poured kerosene on her body and set it on fire in an attempt to hide evidence of the crime, they testified.

Another soldier, Pvt Bryan Howard, admitted to monitoring radio traffic during the attack and was sentenced to five years in prison. The three soldiers could be paroled much earlier.

The killings outraged Iraqis and ratcheted up tension in the war zone.

REUTERS py kp1910