Three British Royal Marines stood trial today for thee alleged murder of a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan.
The killing is believed to have taken place in Helmand Province in September 2011 but only came to light last year, after video footage of the incident was uncovered.
In the footage, recorded by a helmet camera, an injured Taliban fighter is found in a field by 3 Marines, before one of them shoot him in the chest. He then went on to say,
The killing is believed to have taken place in Helmand Province in September 2011 but only came to light last year, after video footage of the incident was uncovered.
In the footage, recorded by a helmet camera, an injured Taliban fighter is found in a field by 3 Marines, before one of them shoot him in the chest. He then went on to say,
"Obviously this don’t go anywhere fellas, I’ve just broken the Geneva Convention.”Speaking for the prosection David Perry QC said,
“The video speaks for itself. It clearly shows they killed an injured man; it shows they lied about the circumstances in which the injured man met his death. 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. An execution of a man who was entitled to be treated with dignity and respect and entitled to be treated as any British serviceman or servicewoman would be entitled to be treated in a similar situation.”See the full report from the Independent here.