Family members of victims vent anger at Bales sentence

Family members of the sixteen Afghan villagers killed by a US soldier have vented anger after learning about a ruling that he would not face the death penalty.

On Friday, surviving victims and relatives of the dead, who traveled nearly 7,000 miles to testify against Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, were deeply unsatisfied with the decision made by a military jury that sentenced the soldier to the life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“We wanted this murderer to be executed,” Hajji Mohammad Wazir, who lost 11 family members in the attack, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

“We were brought all the way from Afghanistan to see if justice would be served. Not our way – justice was served the American way,” he said.

“He only got a life sentence without parole but I’m asking average Americans right here — if somebody jumps in your house in the middle of the night, kills 11 members of your family and tried to burn them, what sort of punishment would you be passing along on that person?” he added.

“I saw his mother trying to cry, but at least she can go visit him,” Hajji Mohammad Naim, who was shot in the neck, said. “What about us? Our family members are actually 6 feet under.”

The six-member jury made the decision after less than two hours of discussion on Friday.

A colonel read the verdict in a room crowded with Bales’ family, friends and the survivors of the slaughter.

Bales pled guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for the massacre.

The 40-year-old soldier attacked two villages in Kandahar province’s Panjwai district in March 2012, slaughtering 16 people — most of them women and children.

The massacre prompted many protests in Afghanistan and forced the United States to temporarily halt combat operations.