Death Penalty Upheld For Muslim Sgt.

On March 22, 2003 Hasan Akbar rolled grenades into the tents of his fellow 101st Airborne, at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait. The attack, which was carried out the night before the unit was supposed to cross into Iraq, killed Captain Christopher Seifert, 27, and Air Force Major Gregory Stone, 40, and wounded 14 other soldiers.

His defense attorneys had argued that Akbar was mentally ill. Military prosecutors at his court-martial trial, however, said that Sgt. Hasan Akbar knew exactly what he was doing, pointing to his detailed diary entries before the March 2003 attack and the fact that he stole the grenades and cut power to his camp just before striking. The motive for the murders was Akbar’s devotion to Islam. From AP reports at the time of the trial:

 

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A prosecution witness testified Monday that a soldier charged with killing two officers in a grenade attack during the Iraq war confessed to the crimes after his arrest, saying he feared the wartime deaths of Muslims.

 

Today, Lt. Gen. John Vines affirmed the death sentence for Akbar, sending the case "€œnow to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals under an automatic appeal,"€ the army said.