Lawyer: 'Preposterous' to blame Afghan man in US war deaths

NEW YORK (AP) — The lawyer for an Afghan man awaiting trial in Manhattan federal court on charges that he commanded the Taliban fighters responsible in the killing of three American soldiers said Friday it was “preposterous" to charge his client in deaths that occurred in a war the U.S. started.

Attorney Mark Gombiner spoke at a pretrial hearing after his client, Haji Najibullah, pleaded not guilty to charges in a rewritten indictment released against him last week.

Najibullah was already charged in the 2008 gunpoint kidnapping of a reporter for The New York Times and another journalist. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

But the new indictment accused him of commanding the Taliban fighters responsible for a fatal ambush of the three service members in Afghanistan in 2008.

The attack killed Matthew L. Hilton, of Livonia, Michigan; Joseph A. McKay, of Brooklyn, and Mark Palmateer, of Poughkeepsie, New York. Najibullah was also charged with playing a role in the downing of a U.S. military helicopter later in the same year.

Gombiner said evidence will show the allegations are not true.

The lawyer said the deaths of American soldiers was an “immense tragedy."

“Nobody disputes that," Gombiner said.

But he said it “is preposterous" that his client should be held responsible for murder in a U.S. courtroom for the death of “American soldiers fighting in a war commenced by the United States."

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla interrupted Gombiner, accusing him of having “gone off on a huge P.R. campaign."

She added: “I want you to talk to me and not the press."

The lawyer, however, said prosecutors were to blame for publicizing the charges through a news release “that was circulated around the world." The...