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On Wednesday, Trump ordered pardoning of these people who were sentenced to long prison terms for killing 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.
The four were part of an armored convoy who shot at a group of homeless people in Baghdad Nisour Square, killing 14 civilians.
Iraqi Legal Expert Ali Al-Tamimi told IRNA on Thursday that the US Constitution allows the president to issue amnesties in certain cases, but Trump should have considered the situation in Iraq and the bereaved mothers, widows and Iraqi orphans who were killed by these forces.
As the president of the largest country in the world, he should respect justice and the feelings of others. He did not have to make such a decision in the last quarter of his presidency and extra time, he said.
Therefore, the Iraqi government needs to protest against the decision that has hurt feelings of the victims' relatives and Iraqis, he reiterated, noting that Trump's move was not the right one, but a biased one that even hurt justice in the US itself.
The crime committed is not a domestic crime in the US that to be forgiven by its president, but a crime related to international relations, international law, and bilateral agreements, he said.
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Marta Hurtado said on Wednesday, "We are deeply concerned by the recent US presidential pardons for four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were convicted for killing 14 Iraqi civilians."
Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future, she said.
The UN Human Rights Office calls on the US to renew its commitment to fighting impunity for gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law, as well as to uphold its obligations to ensure accountability for such crimes.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the decision did not take into account the dangers of the crime committed and was inconsistent with the US government's commitment to the values of human rights, justice and the rule of law. It ignores dignity of the victims and the feelings and rights of their relatives.
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