An American soldier was acquitted by a court martial today on charges of negligently shooting dead an ethnic Albanian boy in Kosovo last summer, a US Army spokeswoman said.
Private First Class Nicholas Young had been accused of firing his machinegun while on peacekeeping duties in the Yugoslav province last July and fatally wounding six-year-old Gentrit Rexhepi.
"He's a free man. There may still be some paperwork to do but he was found not guilty on all charges and will be heading back to his unit," spokeswoman Ms Hilde Patton said.
In the four-day trial at a US base in Germany, he faced one charge of negligent homicide and two charges of dereliction of duty. Had he been found guilty, Private Young, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, would have faced up to three and a half years in jail.
Defence counsel had argued that Private Young's superiors were at fault in giving him charge of a machinegun which he was not properly trained to use.