Baghdad (CNN) -- An Iraqi judge sentenced a British contractor to life in prison Monday, sparing him the death penalty. Daniel Fitzsimons, 30, was charged with murder in the 2009 shooting deaths of two colleagues in Baghdad, in the first trial of a Westerner in Iraq since the Iraq War started in 2003. He pleaded not guilty, telling a three-judge panel that he shot the two men in self-defense. The judge who sentenced him said he didn't give him the death penalty "because you're still young and because of the circumstances of the crime," he said. Fitzsimons smiled and thanked the judge when he heard the verdict Monday.
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NEW: The judge is lenient because of the youth of the killer and the circumstances
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Daniel Fitzsimons, 30, is the first Westerner to be tried in Iraq since the war began in 2003
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Fitzsimons admitted shooting two colleagues, Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare
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But he pleaded not guilty to murder, saying he shot the men in self-defense
According to Fitzsimons' testimony, after a night of drinking, he got into a fight with @placeholder that lasted on and off for more than an hour.