By IRNA,
London : Britain’s state Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided against prosecute US troops for killing award- winning journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003, despite an inquest ruling that he was unlawfully killed.
A CPS spokesman was quoted by the BBC Monday saying that there was “insufficient evidence” to bring about a successful prosecution against any US soldier responsible for shooting dead the British ournalist on the outskirts of Basra at the beginning of the Iraq war.
“I understand that this will be very upsetting news for the family and friends of Mr Lloyd but I can reassure them that every care was taken in pursuing lines of inquiry and reviewing the evidence,” the spokesman said.
Lloyd was working for Independent Television News (ITN) at the time, but unlike most, was not embedded with either British or American troops during the invasion.
An inquest into his death in 2006 ruled that the journalist was unlawfully killed and for US troops responsible to be prosecuted. The coroner said US troops shot him in the head while he was in a makeshift ambulance, after having already been hurt in crossfire.
Lloyd’s interpreter Hussein Osman was also killed in the incident and his cameraman Fred Nerac, believed dead, has been missing since the shooting.
In March last year, ITN reveal the names of 16 marines who were present when the journalist was killed and said that one “almost certainly” fired the fatal shot.