The lawyer representing the U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting spree said on Tuesday that there was no forensic evidence to link his client with the massacre.
Seattle defense attorney John Henry Browne made the comments while talking to reporters after meeting his client, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, for a second time on Tuesday at a U.S. Army base in Kansas.
"I don't know what the evidence is. We've all heard the allegations. I don't know that the government has proved much. There is no forensic evidence, there is no confession," Browne said.
"Nothing really justifies killing women and children in a non-combat situation. But there may be explanations if that's true. And right now I want to say once again, I'm not sure that's true," he said.
Browne said he expected his client to be charged with "homicide and a bunch of other charges" on Thursday, and noted that the case could stretch for more than two years. He also dismissed reports suggesting that Bales and his wife were struggling to make the payments on two properties they had bought, insisting that his client's financial problems were irrelevant to the case.
"Sure, there's financial problems. I have financial problems, 99 percent of America has financial problems. You don't go and kill women and children because you have financial problems," the lawyer said, dismissing reports that his client was drunk at the time of the shootings.
He also portrayed Bale as a dedicated U.S. soldier, saying: "He is a soldier's soldier. He did not want to go over there but he did what he was told. He has never said anything about 'poor little me,' which I get from my clients' way too often. His first questions were about the safety and security of his family."
According to Browne, Bales is still in a state of shock and is remembering only some details from before and after the killings. He said Bales in still "working out the details, and we're working on our relationship with him, which is going really well."
The defense attorney, who has already spent more than 11 hours with his client since Monday to discuss the events that took place on March 11, said he planned to travel to Afghanistan to gather his own evidence.
According to the U.S. version of events, Bales walked out of his military base in Panjwai district around 03 a.m. local time on March 11, and gunned down civilians in four houses in two neighboring villages in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. The rogue soldier, who is said to have been suffering from a nervous breakdown, then surrendered to U.S. military authorities at the base.
Nevertheless, Afghan officials have questioned the U.S. claim that only one rogue American soldier was involved in the incident, pointing out that the accounts of villagers targeted in the shooting indicate that multiple U.S. soldiers took part in the massacre.
Despite the demand for trying the accused publicly in Afghanistan, the U.S. military flew him to Kuwait on March 14 and later ferried him to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where he is being held in pre-trial confinement.
The deadly shooting spree has soured U.S.-Afghan relations, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanding the immediate withdrawal of NATO and U.S. forces from villages in the war-torn country. The killings had triggered an outrage across Afghanistan, with thousands taking to the streets demanding justice.
The developments came amid tension triggered by the burning of copies of the Holy Koran at the Bagram airbase last month. The incident had evoked widespread protests with attacks on international troops across Afghanistan, resulting in the death of at least 30 people.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com