BAGHDAD — Five U.S. contractors have been detained in the investigation of the slaying of another American in Baghdad’s Green Zone, officials said today, in what may become the first case of U.S. citizens facing Iraqi justice under a security agreement that took effect this year.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said the five have not been charged in the death of Jim Kitterman, 60, a construction company owner from Houston whose body was found May 22 in his car in the Green Zone. He had been blindfolded, bound and stabbed.
Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the Americans were being held at an Iraqi police station inside the Green Zone “in connection with a joint U.S.-Iraqi investigation” into Kitterman’s death but gave no further details.
“Until now, the detained persons are suspects and no formal charges have been filed against them,” he told The Associated Press.
U.S Embassy spokesman James Fennell confirmed that five Americans were in Iraqi custody but said no formal charges have been filed so he couldn’t provide further details about the detention.
A U.S. official familiar with the case said the five were being investigated for allegations other than murder. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, who supervises Iraqi police, said it appeared that Kitterman was killed because of an undisclosed “financial situation.”
The five were believed to be the first Americans taken into Iraqi custody since the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement went into effect this year. The agreement removed immunity from Iraqi law enjoyed by private U.S. contractors since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities declined to identify the contractors.
However, an official of Corporate Training Unlimited, a Fayetteville, N.C.-based security company, said the five included Donald Feeney Jr., 55, who founded the company in 1986, his son Donald Feeney III, 31, and three other employees.
“I think everybody is devastated by the loss, including the Feeneys. And they’re cooperating fully with the investigation,” company spokeswoman Sarah Smith said. “They’ve not been charged with anything. And we suspect that they won’t be charged with anything.”
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