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WURZBURG, Germany, July 29 (AFP) - A U.S. soldier from the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo has admitted sexually abusing and killing an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl in the province, the U.S. Army's press service said here Saturday. Sergeant Frank Ronghi, 35, admitted late Friday he had sexually abused and murdered the girl on the evening of January 13th near Vitina in eastern Kosovo, the U.S. military said. He will appear before a U.S. court martial Monday in this south German town. Ronghi had appeared in April before a military inquiry commission at Rose Barracks, which decided to send him before a court martial. That day, the commission heard damning testimony. The U.S. Army's forensic pathologist for Europe, Lieutenant Colonel Kathleen Ingwersen, told of how the child had been mistreated and raped before she was strangled, as cuts and bruises on her neck showed. The sergeant said nothing at the time. The sergeant had been charged February 18th at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo with the offences allegedly committed. The soldier was charged under U.S. martial law. After having "weighed up all the circumstances," the U.S. Army in Europe on June 6th ruled out the death penalty, the press service said Friday. |
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