CAMP PENDLETON - The court-martial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich has been delayed at least a week so recent statements by witnesses and survivors of a group of Iraqi civilians slain in Haditha two years ago can be translated from Arabic to English.

The long-anticipated trial testing the proper application of the military's rules of engagement also is running into other witness issues and a renewed attempt by prosecutors to get the outtakes of a "60 Minutes" interview with Wuterich.

On Monday, one of Wuterich's two civilian attorneys, Mark Zaid, wrote in an e-mail that the Camp Pendleton Marine was in Iraq with other members of his defense team last week when the Iraqi witness statements were recorded.

Prosecutors also were in Haditha recently talking with witnesses and survivors of the killings that took place on Nov. 19, 2005.

Wuterich's court-martial was to begin on March 3 and is now tentatively slated to start on March 10, said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a Marine Corps spokesman. Wuterich is charged with nine counts of voluntary manslaughter and related offenses arising out of the Haditha killings.

Prosecutors have said the Iraqi witnesses won't come to the U.S. for Wuterich's trial or the upcoming court-martial for one of Wuterich's squad mates, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum. Tatum's trial on two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of two children at Haditha is scheduled to start in late April.

But the Iraqis agreed to talk with attorneys if they traveled to Iraq, prosecutors have said during pretrial court hearings.

Defense attorneys have complained that the Iraqis' refusal to appear in court harms their ability to confront them and challenge what they say. If their testimony is limited to recorded videotape, the Iraqis cannot be cross-examined and cannot be questioned by the jurors, a practice allowed in military courts.

Other witness issues are emerging as the trial nears. One surrounds whether Tatum will comply with an order that he testify against Wuterich under a grant of immunity, meaning anything he says on the stand cannot be used against him at his own trial.

Last week, a prosecutor, Capt Nicholas Gannon, said he had not been able to confirm if Tatum will abide by the order. Attempts to resolve the issue with his attorneys have not been successful, Gannon said.

Tatum's attorney Jack Zimmerman declined to comment when asked about the issue. But Zaid said the Wuterich trial team has been told that Tatum will not testify at their client's trial.

Another potentially key witness is Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who had murder charges against him dropped last April in exchange for his testimony.

Zaid said that Dela Cruz is resisting defense attorneys' attempts to question him in advance of Wuterich's trial.

Wuterich's own words were at the center of another legal development in the Haditha case on Monday. Prosecutors appealed a ruling handed down last week that bars them from obtaining the outtakes of a "60 Minutes" interview of Wuterich broadcast by CBS in March of last year.

Portions of the interview that were not broadcast could contain "relevant and necessary evidence" and "substantial proof" of Wuterich's guilt, Gannon said in a one-page appeal of the judge's ruling.

On Friday, the judge presiding over the Wuterich trial, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, deemed the efforts to get the raw tape a "fishing expedition" that case law expressly forbids.

Wuterich was in charge of a Kilo Company squad from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment that was attacked by a roadside bomb in Haditha. The squad's response to that attack and search for those responsible led to the two dozen civilian deaths.

The Marine Corps issued an incorrect statement the day after the incident saying that 15 civilians had died in the bombing.

Eight Marines including Wuterich and Tatum would eventually be charged with criminal wrongdoing.

Charges against four have since been dropped, leaving the two enlisted men facing homicide charges and two officers facing charges tied to their failure to order a full-scale probe of what happened at Haditha.

- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.