A US Army court sentenced an American soldier to jail for life without the possibility of parole yesterday after he admitted sodomising and murdering an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl in Kosovo.
The parents of Marita Shabiu, spoke of their betrayal as they testified yesterday in the trial of the soldier, who had confessed to the crime. Frank Ronghi, a staff sergeant, pleaded guilty last week to the forcible sodomy and premeditated murder of Marita Shabiu, while on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo.
Wiping away tears, the girl's father, Mr Hamdi Shabiu, told the court how, like many other ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, his daughter had welcomed the NATO-led KFOR (Kosovo Force) peacekeepers when they arrived.
Ronghi was arrested in the Yugoslav province after the body of Marita Shabiu was found in woodland outside the town of Vitina on January 13th.
He had remained calm at the hearing on Friday when he pleaded guilty.
At a pre-trial hearing in February, a sergeant told of how a young private under his command alleged Ronghi had loaded up a vehicle out of his sight and then driven out of town, where they had dumped the girl's body.