zondag, juni 01, 2003
A Jordanian military court has sentenced Japanese photographer Hiroki Gomi to 18 months in jail for an unintentional explosion which killed an airport guard. Gomi had pleaded not guilty to charges related to the explosion of a cluster bomb - a battlefield souvenir from Iraq - which blew up as it was being examined. Gomi, a photographer for leading Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, told the court he was unaware that the device was live.
The presiding judge said he found no evidence that Gomi had criminal intentions when he carried the cluster bomb. The verdict can be subject to appeal. Gomi was at Jordan's international airport on 1 May, on his way back to Japan, when an X-ray machine detected a metal object in his luggage. As security guard Ali al-Sarhan did a manual search of the photographer's luggage, the cluster bomb exploded. Sarhan died and three others were wounded.
During the trial, Gomi said he had taken the devices as souvenirs and apologised for the accident. "I am sorry for the victim and his family, I am sorry for the wounded and I apologise to the Jordanian people," he said. Mainichi Shimbun also apologised for the incident, and the president of the daily visited Jordan last month to present condolences to the victim's family and King Abdullah. Gomi had spent two years in Jordan and covered the war in Iraq.
Bron: BBC.
The presiding judge said he found no evidence that Gomi had criminal intentions when he carried the cluster bomb. The verdict can be subject to appeal. Gomi was at Jordan's international airport on 1 May, on his way back to Japan, when an X-ray machine detected a metal object in his luggage. As security guard Ali al-Sarhan did a manual search of the photographer's luggage, the cluster bomb exploded. Sarhan died and three others were wounded.
During the trial, Gomi said he had taken the devices as souvenirs and apologised for the accident. "I am sorry for the victim and his family, I am sorry for the wounded and I apologise to the Jordanian people," he said. Mainichi Shimbun also apologised for the incident, and the president of the daily visited Jordan last month to present condolences to the victim's family and King Abdullah. Gomi had spent two years in Jordan and covered the war in Iraq.
Bron: BBC.
# posted by Jan-Edward : 15:02
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