North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for a former Blackwater Worldwide security contractor charged in a deadly shooting in Baghdad are asking a judge to dismiss the indictment against him.
The lawyers representing Nicholas Slatten say a new indictment returned last month is barred by a 5-year statute of limitations. Slatten and three other Blackwater guards are charged with opening fire on Iraqis in a crowded Baghdad intersection in September 2007.
The guards were first indicted in 2008, but Slatten was dropped from the case the following year. A judge then dismissed the indictment against all defendants, but an appeals court reinstated the case.
Prosecutors argue that Slatten has been continuously under indictment since 2008, but Slatten’s lawyers challenged that assertion in court papers Monday. They say the new indictment violates the statute of limitations.
