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Bounty hunter jailed for 10 years { September 16 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1305576,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1305576,00.html
US bounty hunter who locked up and tortured Afghans jailed for 10 years
Kitty Logan in Kabul and Duncan Campbell
Thursday September 16, 2004
The Guardian
An American bounty hunter who illegally detained and tortured Afghan prisoners was yesterday jailed for 10 years in Kabul. "We should have let the Taliban kill them all," yelled Jonathan 'Jack' Idema, a former member of the US special forces, as he was taken off to serve his sentence in the Kabul jail where he had been held since his arrest on July 5.
Idema claimed that he had locked up and interrogated Afghans with the agreement of the US military. The US defence department denied any connection with Idema who was engaged in a freelance operation to find Osama bin Laden and claim the $25m bounty.
Two fellow Americans were also found guilty of illegally detaining prisoners and violently interrogating them.
A three-judge panel decided that Idema, from North Carolina, his colleague, Brent Bennett, and a freelance New York cameraman, Ed Caraballo, were all guilty of illegally taking prisoners and interrogating them by beating and pouring scalding water over them. Caraballo received an eight-year sentence.
The defence lawyers claimed that the men had not been given a fair trial and said they would appeal. Idema's lawyer, John Tiffany, showed videotapes to the court which he claimed proved Idema's association with the Afghan and US governments. One tape showed Idema being greeted at Kabul airport by Afghan officials and receiving a hug from the head of police. This was enough evidence, he argued, to prove Idema entered at the invitation of Afghan authorities.
Another videotape showed telephone conversations between Idema and an unidentifiable voice. Idema claimed that the person on the other end of the phone was a senior member of the US military.
Idema drew applause from the public gallery when he insisted on swearing an oath on the Qur'an before he testified. However, his religious convictions were questioned by the court interpreter who was offended by his profane language on one of the tapes shown. "Well, that was two months ago," joked Idema.
The three defendants, who all denied the charges, stood impassively while the verdict was read out. It was not until he was handcuffed and led away that Idema shouted abuse.
Idema's lawyer said he was not surprised by the verdict. "We're talking about a legal system that is in its initial stages of reconstruction. The sad part is that we're talking about three men - three Americans - who have been fed to the wolves by the United States government. Justice was not served today.
"I blame the US government, the Bush administration and the Afghan legal system, which is not anywhere near where it needs to be."
One of Idema's former prisoners, who watched the proceedings, said: "I don't think the trial was fair either. They should have got at least 20 years."
Caraballo's New York lawyer, Robert Fogelnest, claimed the US embassy had distanced itself from the case and ignored appeals for assistance. "The United States is running black operations in Afghanistan and they don't want anyone to know it," he said. "The question is how many more Jacks there are out there."
Idema, who dressed in military fatigues decorated with a US flag, ran a military supply company and a paintball business in the US before being jailed for fraud. Since then, he has claimed to have been involved in a number of military conflicts and has often appeared on television as a "security expert". He brought an unsuccessful civil suit claiming that the George Clooney character in the 1997 film The Peacemaker was based on him.
Shortly before the arrests, the US military in Afghanistan issued a statement saying that Idema had no authority to act on their behalf. They later acknowledged that they had received one prisoner from him but released him after two months when it transpired that he was not the person Idema had claimed.
Caraballo has won four Emmys for his television work and had been working on a film about Idema's hunt for Bin Laden for more than a year. His brother, Richard Caraballo, who lives in New York, said his brother's only concern was completing the documentary.
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