FORT STEWART, Ga.
- Just after the last strains of a bugle call signaling the end
of the day faded across this Army base, two burley MPs ushered a
handcuffed Camilo Mejia out of the courthouse where he was convicted
Friday of desertion and sentenced to a year in prison.
''Viva Camilo! Bravo Camilo,'' family and friends
shouted as the MPs put him in the back seat of a patrol car, the first
step on an immediate journey to a military detention facility -- mostly
likely in Jacksonville, Charleston S.C. or Fort Knox, Ky., where he'll
spend the next year.
After a military jury took less than two hours to find
the Miami member of the Florida National Guard guilty, Mejia took the
stand in his sentencing hearing Friday and told the jury he felt no shame
for what he had done.
''I sit here as a free man. I will sit behind bars as a
free man. I strongly believed something had to be done. I followed my
conscience and provided leadership.'' Mejia, 28, said in a calm voice,
looking straight at the four officers and four enlisted soldiers on the
jury.
The sentence imposed on Mejia was the maximum the jury
could impose for a desertion conviction, and his attorney said he will
appeal.
It was the same sentence received two days earlier by
Army Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, who pleaded guilty in Baghdad to maltreatment
of prisoners and three other charges, and agreed to testify against other
soldiers in their prisoner-abuse trials.
''The harsh sentence handed down was a grave injustice
and we do intend to appeal,'' Mejia's attorney, Louis Font said.
Font said the judge should have allowed Mejia's
application for conscientious objector status to be admitted as evidence,
and should have let Mejia testify about prisoner abuse that he said was
one of his reasons for not returning to his post.
''He had an honest and reasonable view that because he
had become a conscientious objector, he would not be required to serve in
Iraq any more,'' Font said in closing arguments Friday morning.
The prosecution argued that the question before the jury
was simple: Was Iraq a hazardous place and did Mejia intend not to return
to duty?
Although Mejia is believed to be the first National
Guard members or reservist tried in the U.S. for desertion from the war in
Iraq, the court martial was specific to Mejia and not designed to send a
message, said Army legal officer Capt. John Hornack.
But Mejia's former commander, Capt. Tad Warfel, who
testified that Mejia's action had been cowardly, had a different view
after the sentence was handed down.
''I think it was great, a great day for the Army, great
day for the Florida National Guard and a great day for soldiers,'' Warfel
said. ``It proves that military justice works and deserters are punished
regardless of what their arguments or their excuses are.''
Warfel said the decision sends a message to others who
might consider deserting.
''When they see the precedent set here today it will
hopefully convince them not to desert,'' Warfel said.
''It is a miscarriage of justice,'' said Todd Ensign,
one of Mejia's attorneys. ''He should have been allowed to offer the
evidence'' that caused him to leave the military, Ensign said.
The military judge, Col. Gary Smith, would not let Mejia
turn the court martial into a trial on the conduct of the war itself,
refusing to allow him to call witnesses on international law or to hear
evidence of alleged mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners or detainees.
Jurors apparently rejected Mejia's contention that he
was entitled to abandon his duty because he had been in the military
longer than the eight years that regulations say a non-citizen can serve
in the Florida National Guard. Mejia holds dual citizenship in Costa Rica
and Nicaragua.
Army Prosecutor Capt. A. J. Balbo argued that Mejia had
deserted his post, while his unit -- the Miami-based Charlie Company of
the First Battalion of the 124th Infantry Regiment -- remained in
hazardous conditions.
''He enjoyed all the benefits of military, just not the
duty,'' Balbo said. ``The defense says he accomplished all of his
missions. Except the most important one -- showing up.''
When Mejia got a two-week leave in October 2003 to take
care of his residency status, he decided not to return and hid out in New
York and Boston. When the 124th was in the process of returning to the
U.S. this spring, he surrendered to military authorities near Boston and
filed an official request to be discharged as a conscientious objector.
Mejia said the Army and the National Guard were also on
trial, and he criticized both for poor leadership. He said he and his
soldiers were put in danger needlessly by poor decision of his commanders
who were overly interested in medals and promotions.
When he finished, about 15 relatives and supporters
broke into applause and shouts.
Font said he will ask Amnesty International to declare
him ''a prisoner of conscience,'' and will ask the Costa Rican consul to
lodge a protest that ``the American military [is] holding my client
against his will.''
''I'm in pain for what just has happened but I am not
surprised about it,'' Mejia's mother, Maritza Castillo said as she walked
from the courtroom.
''The Army gave my son the hardest punishment,'' she
said later standing in a sweltering evening sun. ``But my son is a free
man. He follows the voice of his conscience. A year in jail doesn't mean
anything in comparison with a life of dealing with the guilt of being a
participant of a criminal war.''
