8 November 2013
Last updated at 10:05 ET
Extract from helmet camera recording of incident in Helmand, Afghanistan
A Royal Marine has been found guilty by a military court of murdering an injured Afghan insurgent, in what the prosecution called “an execution”.
Two other marines were acquitted at the Military Court Centre in Wiltshire.
The three – Marines A, B and C – had denied murdering the unknown man while on patrol in Helmand province in 2011.
Marine A was convicted after the court martial heard he had shot the man at close range. He faces a mandatory life sentence and was taken into custody.
It is the first time British forces have faced a murder charge in relation to the conflict in Afghanistan, said BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt.
There were tears from the marines’ families as the verdicts were read. Marines B and C are now free to return to military service, the judge said.
Marine B had inadvertently filmed the murder, which happened on 15 September 2011, on his helmet-mounted camera and the footage was shown to the court during the two-week trial.
’9mm pistol’
It showed Marine A shooting the Afghan prisoner with a 9mm pistol, and saying: “There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil… It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.”
He added: “Obviously this doesn’t go anywhere fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention.”
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The Geneva Convention
This international agreement concerning the treatment of captured and wounded prisoners of war was first signed in Geneva in 1864. It was later revised in 1949 and consists of four treaties.
Article three of the third convention rules that members of the armed forces who have laid down their arms or who cannot fight due to sickness, wounds or detention should be “treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria”.
To this end, it is prohibited to pass sentences on prisoners or carry out executions without a constituted court judgement. Prisoners may not be harmed, degraded, humiliated or taken hostage.
Under the convention, the wounded and sick should be collected and cared for by an impartial humanitarian body, such as the Red Cross.
On Thursday, a recording of a conversation between the marines in the moments before the Afghan was shot was released by the judge.
He had previously rejected an application by the media to release the footage, saying it could be used as propaganda.
During the court martial, prosecutor David Perry told the court: “It was not a killing in the heat and exercise of any armed conflict. The prosecution case is that it amounted to an execution, a field execution.”
Marine A was convicted by a seven-strong board, consisting of officers and non-commissioned officers.
At the time of the killing, he was an experienced sergeant, while Marine C was the most junior of the three. Marine B was new to the Helmand base where marines A and C were based.
Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett told Marine A: “The mandatory sentence prescribed by law is imprisonment for life.
“This court now has to determine the minimum term you will serve before you are eligible for release.”
He asked for a report to be prepared ahead of sentencing at a later date.
Addressing the other two defendants, the judge added: “Marine B and Marine C, you have been found not guilty of murder and you are now free to return to your normal place of duties.
“The issue of anonymity will be decided at a later date.”
Under attack
The murder took place after a patrol base in Helmand Province had come under attack from small arms fire from two insurgents.
The Afghan prisoner was seriously injured by gunfire fired from an Apache helicopter sent to provide air support, and the marines found him in a field.
In one conversation between Marine A and C about shooting the man, one serviceman is overheard asking “Anyone want to give first aid to this idiot?” before another replies loudly “Nope.”
In another, Marine C was heard asking A if he should shoot the man in the head, but Marine A said that would be too obvious.
Royal Military Police arrested the three marines in October 2012 after video footage was found on a serviceman’s laptop by civilian police in the UK.
They first appeared at the Military Court Centre in Bulford in August, where they pleaded not guilty to murdering the Afghan national contrary to section 42 of the Armed Forces Act 2006.
Two further marines – D and E – had the charges against them dropped in February. An anonymity order granted last year to protect the five men from reprisals remains in place.
Prof Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, said the Ministry of Defence needed to be transparent in cases such as this.
“The only thing the MoD can do is not try to hide in cases that look as bad as this, and they’re going to have to accept that if we fight these wars, there will be cases that we are not very proud of – and that’s not justifying them, I think it’s just a realistic understanding of the ways things work,” he said.
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Marine guilty of Afghanistan murder
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