Ex-soldier appeals desertion court-martial - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Ex-soldier appeals desertion court-martial

OKLAHOMA CITY — A former soldier who was court-martialed for desertion after not returning with his Florida National Guard unit to Iraq in 2003 has filed an appeal in his case.

A brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Services in Washington on Wednesday seeks to reverse the May 2004 desertion conviction of Camilo Mejia-Castillo, overturn his “bad conduct” discharge and reduction in rank from staff sergeant to private, and reinstate his pay.

Mejia, of Miami, served about nine months of a one-year prison sentence at Fort Sill Regional Corrections Facility in Lawton.

“Right now, we’re asking them to just grant us a review. Ultimately, the goal is to get his conviction overturned,” said Anjana Samant, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The Army Court of Appeals denied the request earlier this year, Samant said by telephone from New York.

Mejia was a psychology student at the University of Miami before he was deployed. He decided not to return with his unit while on a two-week leave in October 2003.

He asked the military to change his status from deserter to conscientious objector, but an Army officer overseeing the proceeding recommended the request be denied. Mejia said he saw Iraqi prisoners treated cruelly while he was overseeing the processing of detainees at al-Assad, an Iraqi air base occupied by U.S. forces.

“The military is in a pretty tough situation with regard to this case because at the time I was court-martialed, before my trial I presented testimony before the court to the effect that torture was being committed in Iraq and this was ignored,” Mejia said by phone from Washington.

“Then Abu Ghraib came out and the military had to officially respond to allegations of torture.”

Samant said attorneys argued in the appeal that Mejia acted responsibly when he refused to return to Iraq.

“If anything, this is the height of good soldier conduct,” she said. “Part of military training is that a soldier knows there are certain rules of warfare, rules that surround treatment of detainees.”

Lt. Col. Nathan Banks, a spokesman for the U.S. Army, said he couldn’t comment specifically on Mejia’s case.

“The panel will go over the record to see if it should be opened up for review and then they either decide to stick with the recommendation of the lower panel or overturn it,” Banks said from Washington.

Since his release, Mejia has become chairman of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and wrote the book, “The Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia.”

“I’m not doing it because of the rank or trying to restore my personal reputation,” Mejia said. “I’m trying to open the way for other servicemen and women to be able to blow the whistle.”