US blocks investigation of Afghan massacre

SEATTLE – U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident says the lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims. He was prevented by U.S. forces in Afghanistan from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar. It is making difficult for him to track potential witnesses.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

Browne said at a press conference at his downtown Seattle office on Friday,” When prosecutors don’t cooperate, it’s because they are concerned about the strength of their case”.Bales was charged formally with the murders of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on March 11.Still no date has been set for a trial but both parties are preparing for the case.Browne said in a statement released earlier on Friday,” We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client”.” I don’t believe that’s the case, but we don’t know for sure at this point,” Browne said on Friday.

Browne said his investigators had not managed to contact any witnesses but they had spoken to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

“When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team,” Browne said in the earlier statement.

“The next day the prosecution team interviewed the civilians injured. We found out shortly after the prosecution interviews of the injured civilians that the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them.” That means potential witnesses will scatter and could prove unreachable, Browne said.

“I don’t know whether it will at all,” said Browne.

“First thing we have to find out is whether the government has a case. Until we’re convinced the government has a case, we’re not going to start speculating on what our defenses are going to be.”