Judge Stays Iraq War Objector Trial

A federal court judge has temporarily blocked a court-martial scheduled for an Iraq war objector based at Fort Lewis.

The second court-martial of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada had been scheduled to start Tuesday. The first ended in a mistrial in February when the judge said he didn't believe Watada fully understood a pretrial agreement he had signed.

Watada's lawyers argue the Army is violating his constitutional rights by trying him twice for the same crime. After an Army court disagreed, the defense filed an emergency motion to block the court-martial in federal court Wednesday.

Watada is charged with missing his unit's deployment to Iraq in June 2006 and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President Bush and the war.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma has decided his court has jurisdiction to issue the stay and that Watada's double jeopardy claim is not frivolous. Now the judge has asked for more briefs by both sides on the issue.

Fort Lewis legal officers were reviewing the ruling late Friday afternoon and preparing a response, said base spokesman Joe Jimenez.

Watada contends the war is illegal and that he would be party to war crimes if he served in Iraq. The Army refused his request to be posted in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that Watada can be court-martialed again, but Watada appealed that decision to the U.S. Circuit Court for the Armed Forces, which has not ruled, his attorneys wrote.

Watada lives in Olympia and continues to perform administrative duties at Fort Lewis, south of Seattle. His term of service ended in December, but the pending legal proceedings have prevented his discharge.