FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- The U.S. Army today re-filed charges against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to go to Iraq in June 2006. A mistrial was declared in his first court martial at Fort Lewis on Feb. 7.

The 28-year-old Watada is charged with missing movement and of conduct unbecoming an officer. The maximum punishment would be dismissal from the Army and imprisonment for six years.

There is no date for a new court martial.

On Feb. 7, military judge Lt. Col. John Head said he did not believe 1st Lt. Ehren Watada fully understood a document he signed admitting to elements of the charges against him.

The judge announced his decision after Watada, under questioning with the military jury absent, said he never intended to admit he had a duty to go to Iraq with his fellow soldiers -- one element of the crime of missing troop movement.

Watada told the judge he understood what he had signed but was not admitting guilt since he believed he still had a defense -- that the war was illegal.

Head dismissed the jurors and set a March 19 date for a new trial. The prosecution had rested but the defense had not yet presented any witnesses.

KING

Watada refused to go to Iraq with his unit last June because of his anti-war stance.

Watada's defense lawyer, Eric Seitz, objected to the mistrial and said a second trial would amount to double jeopardy -- more than one prosecution for the same alleged crime.

Prosecutors have said Watada abandoned his soldiers and brought disgrace upon himself and the service by accusing the Army of war crimes and denouncing the Bush administration for conducting an illegal war founded on lies.

Seitz contended Watada acted in good conscience, based on his own convictions.

Watada faced four years in prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted of missing movement and two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for his statements against the war.

He's the first commissioned officer to be court-martialed for refusing to go to Iraq, said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice in Washington, D.C.

To prove a charge of missing movement, the prosecutors needed to show that Watada did not report when he had a duty to do so. The disagreement that prompted the mistrial was about whether Watada admitted missing troop movement and having a duty to report, or only missing troop movement.