Aussie `facing death penalty in Kabul`

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the federal government will intervene in the case of
a former Australian soldier facing the death penalty in Afghanistan.
Robert William Langdon, 38, has been convicted over the killing of an Afghan
security guard in May last year.
Langdon, understood to have served as a Townsville-based infantryman, was employed
by the US-based contractor Four Horsemen International as a security contractor at
the time.
Mr Rudd says Australia is providing Langdon with consular support.
"The Australian government will intervene," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio Network on
Wednesday.
"We, as the government, always intervene in support of any Australian citizen who
has been convicted of a capital offence."
Langdon's lawyers are appealing the sentence to Afghanistan's Supreme Court.
Mr Rudd said that while the appeal was underway he wouldn't provide "rolling
commentary" on the case.
"In terms of the political interventions with the Afghan government, well we'll
simply have to take that as it comes," he said.
"I don't think it would be wise at this stage to predict or project the
effectiveness of any particular intervention by me in the case of this individual."
The man Langdon shot, known as Karim, was a work colleague.
Langdon told a courtroom in Kabul he fired in self-defence during an argument he had
with the Afghan guard, The Australian reported on Wednesday.
The colleagues were on their way to assist a supply convoy that had been attacked by
Taliban insurgents.
In court, Langdon's claims of diminished responsibility were undermined by an
admission he tried to cover up his crime by throwing a hand grenade into the truck
containing Karim's body to make it look like the Taliban were responsible.
Langdon's family is trying to raise money to persuade the dead man's family to
formally ask the Supreme Court in Kabul to spare his life.
In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, they requested the media "refrain from
publishing reports on Rob's case".
"Rob is appealing the decision of the Afghan Appeals Court," the statement reads.
"His lawyers are continuing their negotiations with the aim of forestalling possible
serious penalties.
"It is their belief that any publicity given to his situation will make it difficult
to achieve a satisfactory outcome to these negotiations."