'Missing' Marine Faces Charges

[David]

AP


A Marine who was reported abducted in Iraq and later turned up in his native Lebanon was charged Thursday with desertion.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was charged following a five-month investigation into his June disappearance from a U.S. military camp near Fallujah, Iraq, according a statement from the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

Hassoun, of West Jordan, Utah, is accused of taking unauthorized leave from the unit where he served as an Arabic interpreter.

Hassoun also is charged with loss of government property and theft of a military firearm for allegedly leaving the Marine camp while still in possession of his 9 mm service pistol, as well as theft and wrongful appropriation of a government vehicle.

No date has been set for an Article 32 hearing, one of the first steps toward a possible court-martial in the military justice system, said Maj. Matt Morgan, the brigade spokesman.

Last month, U.S. troops recovered belongings of Hassoun in Fallujah, after successfully driving insurgents out there.

The personal effects of Hassoun were found last week in a box on the third floor of a three-story commercial building in Fallujah, the officials said. The property included an identification card, a uniform and a book.

On June 27, Arab television showed a videotape of a blindfolded Hassoun, a sword hanging over his head. At one point while he was missing, a group claiming to represent his captors announced that he had been beheaded after being lured from the base by a love affair.

Hassoun returned in July to the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C. In September, medical authorities at Camp Lejeune declared him fit for full duty, allowing him to return to the brigade motor pool where he worked before he deployed to Iraq in February.