JAG CENTRAL

An Army sergeant had grenades and 26 rounds of rifle ammunition on him when he was taken into custody after a middle-of-the-night attack at a camp in the desert of Kuwait, court-martial witnesses said Wednesday.

Sgt. Hasan Akbar, 33, of the 101st Airborne Division was found with three grenades stuffed in a bag designed to hold his gas mask and with 26 rounds in the 30-round magazine of his M-4 rifle, witnesses told jurors.

The jury also heard a stipulation, or agreement between the prosecution and defense, that the bullet that killed one victim came from a rifle bearing Akbar's fingerprints.
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Agent Shawn Burke of the Army Criminal Investigation Division testified that he found three unexploded grenades in the bag - two incendiary grenades that emit intense heat and one fragmentation grenade that blows shrapnel on explosion. The bag is called a promask carrier by soldiers, short for protective mask carrier.

"Is there a name on this promask carrier?" asked Lt. Col. Michael Mulligan, the chief prosecutor.

"Yes sir. The name is Akbar," Burke said.

The 15 officers and senior sergeants serving as Akbar's jury heard testimony that four grenade safety pins were found near the three tents that were attacked, as were three shell casings.

They also heard lawyers stipulate that Akbar's fingerprints were on the M-4 rifle that fired the bullet that killed Seifert. Akbar's fingerprints also were on a generator that was shut off before the attack, darkening the area outside the tents.

Both sides also stipulated that a grenade fragment removed from Seifert's hand was from an M-67 grenade like that used in the attack. And they agreed that bullet fragments removed from Seifert's back came from a bullet fired by Akbar's weapon.
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After testimony wrapped up Wednesday, prosecutors told the military judge overseeing the case, Col. Stephen Henley, they plan to introduce two passages from Akbar's diary they contend show he planned the attack. Prosecutors must prove premeditation for jurors to be able to consider a death sentence.

Defense lawyers asked Henley to require prosecutors to introduce three other diary sections at the same time. The judge told both sides to prepare briefs and be ready to argue the point before testimony resumes Thursday.

Posted by: Centrist / 15:07 (Cosmos) |