Fresh delay for Briton on murder charge in Iraq

A former British soldier facing the death penalty in Iraq for murder said last night that he remained anxious but hopeful after his case was adjourned again.

A verdict on Danny Fitzsimons, a security contractor accused of killing two comrades in Baghdad, was further delayed while the court studies his claim to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr Fitzsimons, 30, from Greater Manchester, is the first Westerner to be tried by an Iraqi court since the war began nearly eight years ago. He is charged with murdering a Briton and an Australian with whom he worked, and with trying to kill an Iraqi guard.

Speaking exclusively to the Independent, Mr Fitzsimons said he was heartened by the fact judges were focusing on his psychiatric reports, which detail the stress he suffered while serving with the British Army in Kosovo. "I think it was a positive step. Obviously I hope to be acquitted [on the grounds of] self-defence but even manslaughter would be a result," he said.

Mr Fitzsimons told the three-judge panel last month that he was acting in self-defence when he shot his ArmorGroup comrades Paul McGuigan, a former Royal Marine from Peebles in the Scottish Borders, and Darren Hoare, an Australian, during a drink-fuelled brawl in August 2009.

His relatives hope to convince the UK Government to request that he serves any prison sentence in a British jail, where he can receive appropriate psychiatric care. Back in his cell yesterday, Mr Fitzsimons said: "It has been a lonely 18 months."

- INDEPENDENT