Afghan ‘murder’ court martial – judge begins summing-up
Summing up the case of three Royal Marines charged with murdering an insurgent prisoner in Afghanistan, the judge Jeff Blackett addressed the jury of seven military officers this morning.
He said the marines claimed it was just “bravado” and “black humour” when they say of the wounded prisoner “strangle him” and “pump one in his heart”.
He said all three marines agreed they made no attempt to check the prisoner’s pulse or breathing before Marine A shot him in the chest, although he was gravely wounded.
He said it was put to the marines that when one said the Apache helicopter had “gone south”, that meant the “coast was clear” to execute the wounded insurgent. The marines denied this.
Above: still image from helmet-camera video
Judge Blackett reminded the jury that Dr Hunt gave medical evidence about the video filmed from one of the marines’ helmet-cameras, which shows the prisoner moving after Marine A shot him with his pistol in the chest.
Dr Hunt said in court:
“The soldier (sic) fires into the central chest area. The man’s right hand comes up. The head moves and the breathing is more rapid. He was alive at the moment he was shot.”
The judge told the jury Marine A had said it was “stupid” and a “lapse of control” and “I’ve thought about why I did it and cannot give any explanation”.
Marine A, a 39-year-old sergeant on his sixth tour of duty in Afghanistan, said on the video he’d broken the Geneva convention and agreed he’d told his men this goes no further. Afterwards, back on base, he’d agreed in court he may have used the phrase:
“I f****d up there, lads.”
Marine A had told the court:
“I thought the insurgent was dead. I said that at the time. I was surprised by how much he moved after I discharged my weapon. It was a sudden decision because of pent-up emotions.
“I accept there’s a strong possibility he was alive and I regret it. It was a sudden decision.”
Marine B said he was “stunned” by what happened and he knew the prisoner was alive before he was shot by A.
Marine C said in his diary of this incident that it was:
“..the ramblings of a scared and angry person coping with a stressful environment. It was bravado to cope with this. I had no inkling of what was about to happen.”
Marine A says on video after shooting the prisoner:
“..shuffle off your mortal coil, you ****. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.”
He told the court the words, from a Shakespeare play (Hamlet), just came to him. It was “foolish bravado”, he said, and he “was not very proud of it”.
Marine B said he accepted they’d talked of it all being a warning shot misdirected as a cover story. He’d told the court he’d done this out of “loyalty to fellow Marine” (A).
B accepted he’d deleted the helmet-camera video.
The judge reminded the jury that all three marines admitted lying about what happened in initial interviews when they were unaware of the evidence investigators possessed.
Sending out the jury, the judge said they should strive for unanimous verdicts unless only a majority decision was possible. He said they must vote from the most junior rank upwards to avoid any suspicion that any decision might be swayed by pressure from more senior officers.
Today the judge released some stills and audio of the incident. He will rule later on other stills and audio of it. Anonymity of defendants A to C will be reviewed if any if found guilty.
The media are currently appealing the judge’s decision not to release the videos of the incident, even though they were played in open court.
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