A US army sniper has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of killing an unarmed Iraqi civilian and planting a rifle on his body.
Sergeant Evan Vela was found guilty by a court martial in Baghdad of unpremeditated murder in the killing of an Iraqi man south of the capital on 11 May 2006.
He was also found guilty of wrongfully placing an AK-47 on the remains of a deceased and making a false statement.
He was sentenced to 10 years confinement. He was also sentenced to a reduction in rank, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonourable discharge from the army.
Mr Vela, 24, a soldier in 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne, killed Genei Nasir al-Janabi during operations near Iskandariyah, 50km south of Baghdad.
The soldier's lawyers had claimed the killing was an accident sparked by exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
The sniper team had hiked through rough terrain for 72 hours, managing only five hours sleep in this time, the lawyers argued.
The court heard that Mr Janabi had stumbled on a hiding place where Vela and five other snipers were sleeping.
Worried that Mr Janabi would alert insurgents in the area to their position, the team had decided he should be killed, the court heard.
Two other members of the sniper team, Sergeant Michael Hensley and Special Jorge Sandoval, have been cleared of murder charges but convicted of planting evidence on the dead man.
They received prison sentences of 135 days and five months respectively.
