By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A US Marine who said he never fired a shot in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man was sentenced to 8 years in military prison on Saturday - the longest sentence yet in the case.
Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington, 22, also was reduced in rank and given a dishonorable discharge during Saturday's sentencing hearing at the Camp Pendleton Marine base.
Pennington was part of an eight-member squad accused of kidnapping and killing Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, last April in the Iraqi town of Hamdania. Investigators said the Marines dragged Awad from his home, shot him, and then planted an AK-47 and a shovel by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.
Pennington, the squad's radio operator, testified at his court-martial that he did not shoot Awad but said he helped force the man into a roadside hole and held his hand over his mouth.
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