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Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder, while
Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of
voluntary and attempted manslaughter, over the incident in which
U.S. contractors opened fire in busy traffic in a Baghdad square
and killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The four contractors, who worked for the private security firm
Blackwater owned by the brother of Trump's education secretary,
were included in a wave of pre-Christmas pardons announced by
the White House.
“Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice
and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their
families,” said Jelena Aparac, chair of the U.N. working group
on the use of mercenaries, said in a statement.
The Geneva Conventions oblige states to hold war criminals
accountable for their crimes, even when they act as private
security contractors, the U.N. experts said.
"These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law
and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at
a global level."
By allowing private security contractors to "operate with
impunity in armed conflicts", states will be emboldened to
circumvent their obligations under humanitarian law, they said.
The pardons were strongly criticised by many in the United
States. General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, respectively
commander of U.S. forces and U.S. ambassador in Iraq at the time
of the incident, called Trump's pardons "hugely damaging, an
action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the
most heinous crimes with impunity".
In a statement announcing the pardons, the White House said the
move was "broadly supported by the public" and backed by a
number of Republican lawmakers.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Peter Graff)
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