Topeka ? An Army officer who was cleared 10 months ago of any role in the killings of three Iraqi civilians is facing new charges in two of the deaths.

Fort Riley prosecutors say 2nd Lt. Erick J. Anderson, 26, of Twinsburg, Ohio, is responsible for the 2004 killings that landed four of his soldiers in prison. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy, making a false statement, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming of an officer.

A three-day hearing begins Wednesday to determine whether he must face a court martial that could send him to prison for life, if he is found guilty.

Anderson led a platoon in Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion’s 41st Infantry when it deployed to Iraq in June 2004. The cases for which he is charged happened while his men were battling followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr near Sadr City two months later.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Anderson for those deaths in January, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute him. But they left the investigation open in case new details turned up.

Anderson returned to duty as platoon leader until prosecutors filed the new claims against him this fall and he was given a desk job at battalion headquarters.

His attorney, Neal Puckett of Alexandria, Va., said Anderson’s case revolves around the question of when criminal responsibility begins.

“He doesn’t sleep very well, he tells me,” Puckett said. “This is not how he thought things would be in his Army career.”

Puckett said Anderson may have been aware of the deaths of the civilians, but was in no way responsible for the criminal actions of men under his command.

In the first incident, in August 2004, Anderson’s platoon fired on a trash truck carrying young Iraqis. Two soldiers, Staff Sgts. Johnny Horne Jr., of Wilson, N.C., and Cardenas Alban, Inglewood, Calif., were convicted of killing an Iraqi teenager they say was suffering from fatal wounds from the attack.

The soldiers described the event as a “mercy killing,” and each served a year in prison.

The second incident happened only days later. Sgt. Michael P. Williams, of Memphis, Tenn., was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of two Iraqi civilians, and Spc. Brent May, of Salem, Ohio, was sentenced to five years.

Puckett said it is troubling that Anderson faces charges now after the initial investigation conducted by the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq cleared him – and after he was placed in charge of a more sophisticated infantry platoon.

He said he believes the new charges are partly the result of statements made to prosecutors by some of the soldiers who were convicted in the cases.

“There ought to be some pretty damning eyewitnesses before you charge him with murder by proxy, which is what we have here,” Puckett said, adding that Horne and Williams had been making “allegations without any corroboration.”

Puckett said when Anderson took command of the platoon, his veteran platoon sergeant was replaced with one who had been out of an infantry unit for seven years. That made Anderson’s job tougher, Puckett said, and dealing with a few “rogue” soldiers made matters even worse.

Puckett said Anderson was ignored by the battalion commander, Lt. Col. David Batchelor, and company commander, Capt. Robert Humphrey, when he brought up those concerns.

“It did set him up for other difficulties,” Puckett said.

Humphrey and Batchelor are expected to testify during the hearing at Fort Riley.