Jailed British soldier freed

LONDON // A British soldier jailed for killing an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan was freed yesterday after his sentence was reduced from murder to manslaughter.

Former Royal Marine Alexander Blackman was jailed for life in 2013 for shooting the fighter at close range in Helmand Province on September 15, 2011, after the man had been injured by helicopter fire.

The sentence was later reduced to eight years but a judge in March reduced this further to seven years, quashing the murder conviction and replacing it with one of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

Blackman’s lawyer, Jonathan Goldberg, said he was released overnight, while a statement from his campaign page on Facebook said he was now in a safe location with his wife.

In footage captured by a camera on another soldier’s helmet, Blackman was heard to tell the injured Afghan fighter: “There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil,” a Shakespearean term.

“Obviously, this doesn’t go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention,” he told his fellow marines, a reference to international laws governing the treatment of prisoners of war.

His wife, Claire, led a campaign to free him, saying he was suffering from combat stress disorder at the time, although the case has divided the country and the military.