Friday 6 December 2013

Extract Of Court Martial Trial Judgment From The Trial Of Marine "A"


Marine A executed the Afghan national by shooting him in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol, saying “There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you cunt". He then turned to comrades and said: “Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention.” 

This execution was filmed by a camera mounted on the helmet of Marine B. Marine A reported to superiors via radio that the insurgent was still alive and - to avoid the watching helicopter and observation balloon - he was manhandled to the side of the field, under the cover of trees. Marine A is then overheard asking "Anyone want to give first aid to this idiot?" before Marine B replies loudly "No". 

Marine C, standing over the insurgent pointing a pistol at his head, is heard asking Marine A if he should shoot the man in the head, which is refused as "that would be too fucking obvious". Footage shows the injured man, whose top had been pulled up exposing his bloodied torso, suffering kicks from the servicemen before being flipped over from his back to front. As Marine B gives the pretence to the watching helicopter or balloon of administering first aid, he is heard to say "For fuck's sake, I cannot believe I'm doing this". Marine C replies: "Don't - just - don't - yeah, wait a minute, just pretend to do it until he's behind them trees."Two minutes later, Marine A shoots the insurgent at close range in the chest.

Marine C stated in the court martial that his offer to shoot the man in the head and the heart was "banter" and "black humour". Marine C told the court martial he walked away from the insurgent, judging the man was dead, before he heard a shot ring out: "I wasn't there, you know, I wasn't any part of it. I wasn't asked if I wanted or if we should shoot. As far as I knew, when I walked off he was dead". 

This turned out to be untrue when the court saw the footage and later heard extracts from Marine C's journal which he wrote on the evening of the killing: "So there I was, pistol drawn, waiting for [Marine A] to get off the net so I could pop this little wanker and be done with it, when [Marine A] came back over, and thinned me out, to take up ARCS with the others. As I walked off [Marine A] popped him one himself! I felt mugged off, but job done - little fuck was dead at the end of the day."