Marines murder trial: transcript released to court
The incident took place in Afghanistan in September 2011, involving Royal Marines, three of whom face a court martial for murder, currently under way at the military court in Bulford, Wiltshire.
The marines accused of murdering a gravely injured Afghan insurgent have been granted anonymity and may only be referred to as A to C.
If any of the men is convicted, that highly unusual anonymity order will be reviewed.
Central to the prosecution case are the contents of the marines’ helmet-camera videos.
The prosecution case is that these show the men were involved in shooting the injured Afghan insurgent at close range.
A transcript of the videos has been released to the court.
Letters A to C refer to the accused. M is unknown. Marine D is not facing trial.
A: Get his a*** over there.
B: F****** ****
M: F****** b******
(Coughs)
Why couldn’t (you/he) just be f****** dead?…
Good effort lads…
D: You’re browners, fella.
B: Don’t give a f*** about you, son.
(Vocalisations probably from insurgent).
M: Does anyone recognise him?
Stop f****** whinging,
B: F****** p****.
A: Right, get him closer in so PGSS (surveillance balloon) can’t see what we’re doing to him.
M: (Place/push) him in there, come on.
A: Get him right in.
M: Come on.
A: Over by that corn.
M: That’ll do.
A: Right, in that – that clear space…Get him right over here.
M: That’ll do, that’ll do, that’ll do.
D: Do you want him back in?
A: Yeah, I want – I want him in this area here so I can see what the f*** (we’re/I’m) doing.
A: Anybody want to do first aid on this idiot?
M: No
B: No
C: I’ll put one in his head, if you want.
M: (Laughs)
C: Take your pick.
A: No, not in his head, ’cause that’ll be f****** obvious.
M: Just move him round here. Move him round.
B: Going to switch this f***** off.
These are the significant extracts of the second video:
A: Yeah, he’s got a f***** chest wound, mate.
M: F****** hell.
B: We’ll patch him (with) an FFD (first field dressing), Steve…
A: Yeah, send, over. (Speaking on radio).
B: That’ll do, won’t it?…Keep your eyes on my weapon, mate.
M: Where’s that – (where’s that Ugly (Apache helicopter) now?
A: He’s – he’s over there and he can f****** see us. Ah.
B: Better send up a nine liner, I suppose. (Request for helicopter casualty evacuation).
A: Yeah, er we’re just waiting for Steve to er get…He may well be dead. (Speaking on radio).
C: He’ll be on – be behind them trees in a minute.
B: For f***’s sake, I can’t believe I’m doing this.
C: Don’t – just – don’t – yeah- wait a minute, just pretend to do it, till he’s behind them trees.
M: Just strangle him
(Laughs)
A: Yeah, he’s past. F*** it, he’s past.
M: Yeah
C: He’s dead.
A: Hello, one zero. One four hotel. (Speaking on radio).
B: F****** ****, shooting at Talander, you ****.
A: I hate to say it, administering first aid to this er individual, he’s er…(Speaking on radio).
B: Wait
A: Passed on from this er this world, over. (Speaking on radio)…
Do my best to er biometrically enrol him erm and then er gather a DNA samples er (Speaking on radio)…
To bag up with the evidence, the weapon and the er grenade, over. (Speaking on radio).
B: There was a grenade there as well, was there…
C: Yeah in his pocket.
B: F****** ****.
M: Yeah ****.
B: That’s probably re – ready to go on you boys.
M: Mm…(Get your) shot f******…F****** hell.
C: Yeah maybe we should pump one in his heart.
There then follows a period of radio traffic.
The video continues:
A: Er he’s dead. Don’t waste your f****** FFDs on the cheeser. Take it off him…
There you are, shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***… it’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.
B: I know.
M: Exactly… All right…
A: Obviously, this doesn’t go anywhere, fellas.
B: Yeah, roger, mate.
A: I’ve just broke the Geneva Convention.
B: Yeah, roge.
A: Biometric data module, right. Er try and brush some of that s*** off his face.
B: If anything – if anything gets heard mate, it’s as a warning shot went down.
A: Yeah Steve, he’s er fully dead now. (Speaking on radio).
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