Hassoun fate up to military
Hassoun could face criminal investigation for possible desertion. However, friends and experts say this politically charged situation is more than just about a young Marine. It's also about the fragile relationship Muslims have with the rest of America.
A military spokesman confirmed that Hassoun was taken Friday from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, where he turned up after having been missing for more than two weeks. He later arrived at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Officials said Hassoun will be debriefed at a military hospital in Berlin and given medical and psychological evaluations. He is expected to stay three to four days in debriefing and evaluations before returning to the United States, hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw said.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Hassoun went to the embassy voluntarily and remained there until Department of Defense officials arranged his departure.
Over the past two weeks, various news agencies have listed Hassoun as "absent without leave" or on "unauthorized leave." However, Marine officials now use the term "deserted" to characterize Hassoun after he failed to show up for duty.
Speaking from Camp Pendleton, Calif., Johnson said Hassoun was initially listed as "missing."
"There was enough information to lead officials to believe he had deserted," Johnson said. But when video of a blind-folded Hassoun, being threatened with beheading, surfaced on Al Jazeera on June 27, Johnson said Marine officials changed Hassoun's status from "deserted" to "captured."
Friday, the Defense Department announced that Hassoun's status has changed from "captured" to "returned to military control." His whereabouts between June 19 and July 8 are under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Even if Hassoun were to be charged with desertion, he would not face the death penalty, according to a former chief of military justice for the U.S. Air Force who now works as an assistant Utah attorney general.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice states that any member of the armed forces convicted of desertion in time of war faces "death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct."
But Michael Wims, assistant Utah attorney general and a retired colonel who served as chief of military justice in the U.S. Air Force, said that provision doesn't apply because the conflict in Iraq is not a war declared by Congress or by executive order of the president.
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