US objector guilty of desertion

Mejia (r) said he would prefer jail to a return to Iraq

A military court in the US state of Georgia has found a soldier guilty of desertion for leaving his unit in Iraq.

The soldier, Camilo Mejia, served in Iraq for five months until October last year when he went on leave, and then failed to report back to his unit.

Mejia, a staff sergeant, said he was a conscientious objector and opposed what he called "an oil-driven war".

He also said he saw civilians killed and prisoners mistreated in Iraq before the Abu Ghraib abuses became public.

He feels that he still did the right thing, and he did it under his conscience and his beliefs Maritza Castillo Mejia's mother

He faces a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge.

The Florida national guardsman, who is a US resident but has joint Costa Rican and Nicaraguan citizenship, has said he would prefer jail to a return to Iraq.

The trial comes in the same week as the Baghdad court martial of military policeman Jeremy Sivits, who was jailed for a year on Wednesday for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

'Reasonable view'

Lawyers at Mejia's trial had sought to make comparisons with the trial of Sivits and others accused of abuses in Iraq.

But Judge Gary Smith ruled on Thursday that evidence about prisoner abuse was irrelevant to the desertion charge.

In summing up, defence counsel Louis Font said Mejia had simply made a mistake.

"He had an honest and reasonable view that because he had become a conscientious objector, he would not be required to serve in Iraq anymore," he said.

Prosecutors said there was no escape from the fact that he had failed in his duty by not turning up and abandoning his troops.

Mejia's mother, peace activist Maritza Castillo, said his feelings hadn't changed.

"He feels that he still did the right thing, and he did it under his conscience and his beliefs," she told the Associated Press news agency.

The Florida National Guard is one of the units of part-time soldiers that has been sent to the Gulf.