In December, Donald Trump pardoned four former Blackwater contractors for their part in the 2007 shooting rampage that left 14 unarmed civilians dead in Baghdad. Evan Liberty was one of the four contractors who was pardoned.
He has since defended his actions.
According to the Daily Mail, in 2014, Evan Liberty was convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter for opening fire in Baghdad’s busy Nisour Square. The incident took the lives of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.
‘I feel like I acted correctly,’ Liberty said during his first interview following his release. ‘I regret any innocent loss of life, but I’m just confident in how I acted, and I can feel peace with that.’
Liberty spent six years in prison, hoping one day for a pardon. Last month, a prison supervisor came to his cell to deliver the news he was hoping for.
‘He says, `Are you ready for this?’ Liberty recalled. ‘I said, `Uh, I’m not sure. What is going on?´ He said, `Presidential pardon. Pack your stuff.´’
Liberty was ‘Dumbfounded’ by the news but looks forward to moving on with his life. The New Hampshire native doesn’t know what his future will be but knows he has a passion for physical fitness and wants to help veterans’ organizations.
‘I feel like it’s my duty to go out and do something positive and live a good life because they gave me a second chance, so that´s basically my goal,’ he says, adding that he is grateful to those that support him, including Donald Trump who has given him a ‘second chance at life.’
The Blackwater rampage has been called a ‘massacre’ by the now-retired FBI agent John M. Patarini. In a letter to the New York Times, he slammed the pardons and said the shooting was a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam.’
‘President Trump should have had staff members review the trial evidence that led to the convictions and read the judges’ opinions and sentencing statements,’ he wrote. ‘I’m so disgusted with the president’s actions!’
‘I’m so glad that I’m retired and will never again be asked to risk my life and those of my fellow investigators, only to have killers pardoned for purely political reasons,’ he continued.
All four U.S. contractors were convicted for their part in the 2014 shooting rampage. Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder, and the other three, Paul Slough, Dustin Heard, and Liberty were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter.
The contractors claimed they were targeted by insurgent gunfire at the location of the shooting, but prosecutors said there was no evidence found to support their claims.
Their prison sentences ranged from 15 years to life. But Donald Trump’s pre-Christmas clemency spree has lessened their time.
UN experts claim the pardons violate international law.
‘Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families,’ said Jelena Aparac, who is the chair of the U.N. working group on the use of mercenaries.
Private security contractors are held accountable under the Geneva Conventions, which has war criminals responsible for their crimes.
‘These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level.’
The group says allowing private security contractors to operate with impunity in armed conflicts makes states emboldened to circumvent their humanitarian law obligations.
Liberty acknowledges that many may not be understanding of his pardon. Still, he insists there is a misconception of the shooting rampage and says he did not shoot in the direction of any of the victims killed that day.
‘I didn’t shoot at anybody that wasn’t shooting at me.” While also adding that he and the other contractors would ‘never take an innocent life. We responded to a threat accordingly.’
The judge initially gave Liberty 30 years in prison. He says he uncertain how he was pardoned and has never spoken with Donald Trump. However, his support base is known to have ties with the White House.
The White House says the decision to pardon the group of four was ‘broadly supported by the public’ and also by several Republican lawmakers.
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