Posted on 05/19/2011 10:20:19 PM PDT by naturalman1975
THE case against two Army Reserve soldiers charged with manslaughter in Afghanistan will not proceed to a court martial, a judge advocate has decided.
This means the case has been dismissed and the charges will be referred back to the Director of Military Prosecutions (DMP), Judge Advocate Brigadier Ian Westwood said at a pre-trial hearing in Sydney today.
A court martial set down for July 11 will now not proceed and the prosecution will have to decide whether to bring further charges against the pair.
Judge Advocate Westwood was delivering his judgment on pre-trial issues relating to the men's case.
The charges had related to a February 12, 2009, incident that involved members of the Special Operations Task Group undertaking a compound clearance operation in Oruzgan province.
Six civilians, including five children, were killed as a result of the operation.
The Army Reserve soldiers, identified only as Sergeant J and Lance Corporal D by order of the judge advocate, had been charged with manslaughter and, in the alternative, two counts of dangerous conduct, with negligence as to consequence.
"The ruling does not detract from the personal tragedy inherent in the prosecution's allegations or diminish the importance of the lives concerned," Judge Advocate Westwood said.
.....
There was rarely time for "calm reflection" in armed combat situations which often had "life or death consequences," he said.
.....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Sounds like something regrettable happened, but I'm glad that these charges have been dismissed. Bad stuff happens when war fighters do their jobs. We gotta stop being so granular in our hindsight of what they should've done.
The judge was probably in shock from the discovery that the US Army has lance corporals.
The article is about the Australian Army, and is one of a series on this case, I’ve been posting here. The Australian Army does have Lance Corporals.
If you come across a good accounting of the incident, tag it. I tagged this thread with: oruzgan.
Whoops!
Mea culpa - I confused it with a similar case involving US soldiers, and thought the rank was due to sloppy journalism.
They’ll still be semi-sacrificed. And the info of this punishment will be passed along to our new muzzie allies. Whoever the hell they are.
Is there an alternative?
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