MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti) - US soldier Robert Bales accused of massacring 16 people, nine of them children, in southern Afghanistan last year, will plead guilty to avoid death penalty, Al Jazeera reported citing his lawyer.
According to investigators, Staff Sgt. Bales left his base in southern Afghanistan early on March 11, 2012. He attacked people in a nearby village, returned to his base and then left again to attack another village killing a total of 16 people, mostly women and children.
John Browne, a lawyer for Bales, said his defendant will plead guilty to charges of premeditated murder on June 5 and will tell the court his account of the events. The prosecution demands a death penalty for Bales.
Prosecutors said earlier that Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, had demonstrated “consciousness of wrong-doing.” Army investigators said he tested positive for steroids three days after the killings and other soldiers testified he had been drinking the night of the killings.
The killings sparked furious protests prompting the United States to temporarily halt combat operations in Afghanistan in the wake of the killings. It took US investigators three weeks to reach the crime scenes.
