US Marine charged with assault in second Hamdania incident News
US Marine charged with assault in second Hamdania incident

[JURIST] A US Marine has been charged with three counts of assault and one count of making a false statement in connection with an incident occurring on April 10 near the village of Hamdania in Iraq, according to a Marine spokesman speaking Wednesday. Lt. Nathan Phan allegedly beat and choked three Iraqi civilians, putting his unloaded pistol in the mouth of one of the men. Six other Marines have also been charged [JURIST report] for the April 10 incident. According to Phan's lawyer, the April 10 incident was uncovered during a military investigation of seven Marines and one Navy corpsman [JURIST report] charged in June with the murder and kidnapping of an Iraqi civilian in the same village on April 26. Phan was the platoon leader for the squad accused of the April 26 incident, though he was not charged in that investigation.

No date has been set yet for Phan's Article 32 hearing [JAG backgrounder]. Reuters has more.