Civilian Court Can Try Iraqi National

{Kentucky}...U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell ruled Tuesday that Iraqi national Waad Ramadan Alwan can be tried in civilian court. Alwan, charged in Kentucky with planting roadside bombs in Iraq, claims that under the Geneva Convention he could only be prosecuted in Iraq. Alwan was indicted in Bowling Green on charges that he engaged in conspiracy to commit the murder of U.S. nationals in Iraq during the insurgency there between 2003 and 2006. He and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi were arrested in Kentucky in May and also charged with conspiring to send weapons and cash to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Both have pleaded not guilty and are being detained pending trial, which has not been set. Chief federal public defender Scott Wendelsdorf sought to dismiss the murder charges on the grounds that the international treaty signed by the U.S. says that civilians in Iraq were subject to prosecution only under local law or through military tribunals. Judge Russell agreed with the prosecution that the law applies in areas under military control and covers the murder of any American abroad.