Trial postponed for Marine who vanished in Iraq

By

The Associated Press

FILE – In this July 19, 2004 file photo, Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun makes a statement to the media outside Quantico Marine Base in Quantico, Va. Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore said Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014, that a judge decided last week to deny Cpl. Hassoun’s request for another Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing. Gilmore said Hassoun’s general court-martial is scheduled to begin at Camp Lejeune on Dec. 8 before the judge, Marine Maj. Nicholas Martz. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A judge has delayed the trial of a Marine accused of deserting his unit a decade ago in Iraq and later winding up in Lebanon.

Camp Lejeune spokesman Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore said Thursday that a military judge granted a defense request to delay Cpl. Wassef Hassoun’s case until February. A court-martial had been scheduled to start next week on charges of desertion, larceny and destruction of government property.

The case began in 2004 when Hassoun disappeared from a base in Iraq. He turned up days later at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, saying he’d been kidnapped by insurgents. After a brief return to the U.S., he vanished again and wound up in Lebanon again.

A military report acknowledges that the case against Hassoun is largely circumstantial.

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