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05/22/2004:

"Well the Sandinistas Brought Their Kids Up Right"

Imagine. Under the U.S. Military Justice system a soldier who tortures receives the same punishment as one who refuses to.

Soldier Who Refused to Return Is Found Guilty of Desertion
By ARIEL HART

ATLANTA, May 21 — A military jury convicted a member of the Florida National Guard on Friday at a court-martial in Fort Stewart, Ga., on charges of desertion because he refused to return to his unit in Iraq, saying he objected to the war there.

The soldier, Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, was sentenced to the maximum penalty of one year in prison, reduction in rank to private, and a bad-conduct discharge at the end of his prison term.

His family said he would appeal. "I couldn't be more proud of this brave and courageous young man," said Norma Castillo, his aunt. "We're not going to stop until justice prevails."

His claim of conscientious objector status, filed months after his desertion, is being considered separately. His lawyers said the judge's decision to exclude the application from all but the sentencing phase of the court-martial "gutted" his case.

American military law recognizes conscientious objection to war in general only and not to specific conflicts, said Eugene Fidell, a founder of the National Institute of Military Justice.

Sergeant Mejia, 28, has said his experience in Iraq, seeing brutality, senseless deaths and commanders who he said put glory over good decisions, convinced him that the war was "oil driven" and immoral.

The judge would not let him testify about the mistreatment of detainees he said he saw, incidents his lawyers said violated the Geneva Convention. Sergeant Mejia's unit was assigned to secure prisoners at a holding facility in al-Assad last May, said Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, a spokesman for the Florida National Guard.
full article

Son of a Sandinista Charged with Desertion