BAGHDAD – An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced a British security guard to life in jail for killing a fellow Briton and an Australian in Baghdad, the first conviction of a Western contractor since the 2003 invasion. Danny Fitzsimons, 30, could have received the death penalty for the August 2009 shooting in the Iraqi capital’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.
His lawyer said that the life sentence equated to 20 years in Iraqi law, and added that he would appeal the verdict. “The court finds that the evidence has determined that you committed the crime of killing and injuring,” said the judge, who cannot be named. “Taking into consideration the circumstances of the crime and the fact that you are young, now you are sentenced to life in prison.”
Fitzsimons, who appeared at Karkh Criminal Court wearing a black pinstripe suit with a light-blue shirt and dark striped tie, did not visibly react either when the court-appointed interpreter translated the sentence, or when he was led away to a waiting police vehicle.
“This is a very good decision, and very good result — he has been saved from death,” said Fitzsimons’s Iraqi lawyer Tariq Harb, speaking outside the courtroom.
