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28 February 2011
Last updated at 04:21 ET
A British security guard has been sentenced to 20 years in jail after being convicted by an Iraqi court of murdering two colleagues.
Danny Fitzsimons, 30, from Rochdale, admitted killing Paul McGuigan, from the Scottish Borders, and Darren Hoare, from Australia, in August 2009.
Under Iraqi law a life sentence equates to a 20-year jail term.
Fitzsimons is the first Westerner to be convicted in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.
He was also convicted of attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.
Green Zone The former paratrooper, who feared being hanged, said he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress.
A 2009 US-Iraqi security agreement lifted immunity from prosecution for foreigners.
Fitzsimons, from Middleton, has said he shot the men in self-defence after an altercation broke out.
Fitzsimons, Mr McGuigan and Mr Hoare had all been working for British security firm ArmorGroup, based in the Iraqi capital's fortified Green Zone, at the time of the shooting.
In a BBC interview before his sentence Fitzsimons described his greatest fears.
He said: "Obviously hanging, nobody wants to hang, and possibly life imprisonment in one of the worst jails in the world."
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Danny Fitzsimons, 30, from Rochdale, admitted killing Paul McGuigan, from the Scottish Borders, and Darren Hoare, from Australia, in August 2009.
Under Iraqi law a life sentence equates to a 20-year jail term.
Fitzsimons is the first Westerner to be convicted in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.
He was also convicted of attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.
Green Zone The former paratrooper, who feared being hanged, said he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress.
A 2009 US-Iraqi security agreement lifted immunity from prosecution for foreigners.
Fitzsimons, from Middleton, has said he shot the men in self-defence after an altercation broke out.
Fitzsimons, Mr McGuigan and Mr Hoare had all been working for British security firm ArmorGroup, based in the Iraqi capital's fortified Green Zone, at the time of the shooting.
In a BBC interview before his sentence Fitzsimons described his greatest fears.
He said: "Obviously hanging, nobody wants to hang, and possibly life imprisonment in one of the worst jails in the world."
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