September 14, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 13, 1429

CAMP SPEICHER (Iraq), Sept 13: A pre-trial hearing was held on Saturday for a US soldier charged with murdering an Iraqi detainee by shooting him and then burning him with an incendiary grenade, in the latest scandal to rock the military in Iraq.

Staff Sergeant Hal Warner from Oklahoma has been charged along with First Lieutenant Michael Behenna with the premeditated murder of Ali Mansur Mohammed, as well as assault, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice.

Mohammed was killed after he was detained by the two soldiers in May.

The hearing for Warner, who is on his second deployment to Iraq, was held at Camp Speicher, a US base near former military dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

Behenna’s hearing is set for September 20.

The charges against the pair follow a criminal investigation into the death of Mohammed, a detainee initially believed to have been released by coalition forces on or about May 16.

An AFP correspondent at Camp Speicher said that Warner was accused of arresting Mohammed at his house in Tikrit on May 5, and of beating him up.—AFP