Grteat Satan US soldier to plead guilty in Afghan massacre to escape death

An American soldier who was involved in the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers last March is set to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty, his attorney says.

Lawyer John Henry Browne’s Wednesday announcement about the fate of his client Robert Bales would certainly outrage the Afghans who had demanded the execution of the soldier, a demand supported by the US Army.

The military justice system has not executed anyone since 1961.

Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, an Army spokesman, said a plea hearing has been set for June 5 in which the culprit must recount the details of the horrific massacre. His lawyer says he was not in a normal state of mind on the night of the incident and now remembers very little about what exactly happened.

The plea deal needs the approval of the judge and the commanding general at the US base where Bales is held in custody.

Bales in the only American soldier charged with the killing of 16 Afghans, mostly women and children, in two separate villages in southern Afghanistan while a fact-finding commission set up by the country’s parliament announced after the disaster that more than 20 US troops had been involved in the killing. Some of the bodies had been piled and burned.

The Afghan team spent two days in the southern province of Kandahar, interviewing families of the victims, tribal elders and survivors to collect evidence.