An Iraqi court has convicted a British security guard and sentenced him to life imprisonment for killing a British and an Australian security contractors.
Danny Fitzsimons was said to be the first Westerner to be convicted in an Iraqi court since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Fitzsimons, 30, could have faced the death penalty.
His Iraqi lawyer, Tariq Harb, said that under Iraqi law life in prison was equivalent to 20 years.
Fitzsimons, a former British soldier, had insisted that he had acted in self-defense during an alcohol-fueled brawl in Baghdad's Green Zone in August 2009.
Foreign security contractors had not been subject to Iraqi law until the beginning of 2009, when a security agreement between the United States and Iraq lifted their immunity.
compiled from agency reports
Danny Fitzsimons was said to be the first Westerner to be convicted in an Iraqi court since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Fitzsimons, 30, could have faced the death penalty.
His Iraqi lawyer, Tariq Harb, said that under Iraqi law life in prison was equivalent to 20 years.
Fitzsimons, a former British soldier, had insisted that he had acted in self-defense during an alcohol-fueled brawl in Baghdad's Green Zone in August 2009.
Foreign security contractors had not been subject to Iraqi law until the beginning of 2009, when a security agreement between the United States and Iraq lifted their immunity.
compiled from agency reports
