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After the explosion of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad
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The former security guard of Blackwater Worldwide, Nick Slatten.(Photo: Cliff Owen, AP)

WASHINGTON – The new trial of a former security guard at Blackwater Worldwide, accused of instigating the shooting in Iraq ten years ago, ended with an outstanding jury.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth said on Wednesday he was unable to reach a verdict after 16 days of deliberating murder charges against Nick Slatten, 34, of Sparta, Tennessee.

It is not clear immediately if prosecutors will try to try again. The US prosecutor's office said it was reviewing the case and has no further comments at the moment.

Slatten was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 for his role in the 2007 shootings at Baghdad's Nisour Square. Fourteen unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed and 17 others, including women and children, were injured during the attack, which occurred during the war between Iraq and a coalition led by the United States.

Last year, a federal court of appeal rejected this conviction and ordered Slatten a new trial.

In June, Slatten was again tried in the US District Court in Washington for his role in the shooting. The trial lasted five weeks and included testimonies from fellow guards and Iraqis who survived the attack.

Government prosecutors alleged during the The President: Slatten, without provocation, fired the first shots into the fray, prompting a murderous shooting that became a hot spots in relations between Baghdad and the United States and raised questions about the use of private contractors by the US government.

But Slatten's lawyers argued that he was innocent and pointed to confessions from another guard who said that, not Slatten, he had fired the first shots.

At the hearing, defense lawyer Dane Butswinkas described the government case as "speculation, speculation and conjecture". He complained that the government had deliberately held doubts about Slatten's guilt minutes of crime scenes filmed by a drone.

Deputy Attorney Patrick Martin countered that the government had provided all the evidence he had.

Prosecutors also argued that Slatten had fired on other innocent targets in the hope of launching a shooting, that he harbored a deep hatred of the Iraqis and that he had sworn revenge in retaliation. terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. September 11, 2001.

The former security guard of Blackwater Worldwide, Nick Slatten. (Photo: Submitted)

The murderous slaughter in which Slatten was charged has already been investigated by the military, a congressional panel, the FBI, and others. Yet 11 years later, the details of what happened that day remain in dispute.

Slatten and three other guards – Dustin Heard of Maryville, Tennessee, Paul Slough of Keller, Texas, and Evan Liberty of Rochester, New Hampshire – were all former members of the armed forces serving as private guards for Blackwater, now known as name of Academi. The Raven Guard Security Team was under contract with the State Department.

On September 16, 2007, their convoy moved to a crowded roundabout in downtown Baghdad as part of efforts to evacuate an American diplomat.

At one point, the guards opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. They say the shooting started only after a white Kia sedan left the traffic and approached their four armored vehicles. The men had received intelligence reports that a white Kia could be used as a car bomb, so they feared to be attacked.

No evidence of a bomb has ever been found.

The government claimed that the guards opened unprovoked fire on innocent Iraqis and used excessive force. Slatten, prosecutors argued, fired the first shots, killing the driver of Kia, an unarmed young Iraqi medical student named Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y. The student's mother, a doctor sitting next to him in the car, was also killed.

But in statements to investigators, Slough said that he had fired the first shots, not Slatten. The statements were never presented to the jury at the Slatten trial. He was convicted of first degree murder in 2014 and sentenced to life in prison.

In August, the Washington District Court of Appeals overturned Slatten's conviction and ordered a new trial, claiming that a lower court had erred in not allowing him to be tried separately from his co-accused. The court of appeal said that Slatten had fired the first shots, according to the Court of Appeal, and that Slatten should have been allowed to present evidence that it was Slough who had fired the first shots.

In closing arguments, counsel for the government argued that Slough's statements were inconsistent. He first denied the investigators opened fire, then retracted and said he fired the first shots, they said.

More: Nick Slatten, former Blackwater security guard: "I am a prisoner of war in my own country"

More: A woman from a convicted Blackwater security guard still hopes her husband is released from prison

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