The military said the unnamed staff sergeant had been transferred because there were no suitable facilities for long-term detention in Afghanistan, but the move signalled the US's desire to prevent the criminal case against him from becoming a flashpoint for further violence.
The decision has provoked fury in Afghanistan, where MPs have demanded that the soldier be handed over to the Afghan justice system and called on President Hamid Karzai to suspend all talks with the US until that happens.
“It was the demand of the families of the martyrs of this incident, the people of Kandahar and the people of Afghanistan to try him publicly in Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai, a Kandahar lawmaker who is part of a parliamentary commission investigating the shootings.
Abdul Khaliq Balakarzai, another Kandahar lawmaker, said President Hamid Karzai should respond to the US decision to move the soldier by refusing to sign a strategic partnership agreement governing the presence of US soldiers in the country after most combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014. » | Raf Sanchez and agencies | Thursday, March 15, 2012
