WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday rejected a last-minute request to delay the sentencing hearing for four former Blackwater guards convicted in the 2007 fatal shooting of Iraqi civilians.

The order from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth means the sentencing will proceed as scheduled Monday morning in Washington. Federal prosecutors are seeking mandatory decades-long sentences for three of the four – Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Paul Slough – and a life sentence for guard Nicholas Slatten, who was convicted of first-degree murder.

Defense lawyers filed an emergency motion Friday morning seeking a delay in the sentencing hearing because of newly discovered evidence that they said was favorable to their case. They contended that a new witness statement produced by prosecutors this week contradicted the government’s case about how the shooting started and called into doubt the trial’s results.

“Defendants, who have been confined since the verdict, do not lightly seek delay, or seek delay for its own sake. But these issues deserve full consideration by the Court: it would be unfair to proceed to impose sentence and enter judgment when this new evidence, disclosed less than two days ago, leaves the trial result fundamentally in doubt,” defense lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors responded by saying there was no need to postpone the trial. In a two-page order issued Friday evening, Lamberth said he agreed and noted that the defendants still had the option of seeking a new trial.

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