MIAMI, May 21 (UPI) -- A military jury found a U.S. soldier guilty of desertion Friday for failing to return to Iraq from two weeks of rest and recuperation.
Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia had applied for conscientious objector status after disappearing for five months and then surrendering at Fort Stewart, Ga., the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
He contended the Iraq war was illegal and driven by oil. He later said that while on duty at a prison in Baghdad he witnessed prisoner abuse in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Mejia, 28, said by going AWOL he was refusing to participate in the abuses he said were similar to those in the Abu Ghraib prison, also in Baghdad.
Mejia is expected to be sentenced to one year in jail, a demotion, a reduction in pay and a bad conduct discharge.
The verdict in the court martial proceeding was reached by a jury of four officers and four enlisted personnel, all of whom outranked Mejia. There were seven men and one woman.
