Marine Gets Eight Years For Murder Of Iraqi

(RFE/RL) February 18, 2007 -- A U.S. military judge has sentenced a U.S. Marine to eight years in prison  after he pleaded guilty to murdering an Iraqi in the city of Hamdania in 2006.

Lance Corporal Robert Pennington, 22, pleaded guilty last week to being an accessory to the murder, in which a total of eight members of the U.S. military have faced various charges.

Pennington, who initially faced the death penalty, became the fifth U.S. serviceman to admit involvement in the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania outside Baghdad on April 26, 2006.

(AFP)