Marine ‘ shot prisoner dead in execution’

A ROYAL Marine shot dead a wounded Taliban prisoner at pointblank range in a “field execution”, a court martial heard yesterday.

The commando, identified as Marine A, is said to have told the dying man to “shuffle off this mortal coil” before ordering comrades to keep quiet about it because he had broken the Geneva Convention.

Three Marines are accused of murder in the first case of its kind for British troops in Afghanistan. They deny the charge.

The two other servicemen are known only as B and C. The alleged murder in Helmand Province in September 2011 was captured on video, inadvertently filmed by one of the Marines on a helmet mounted camera. David Perry, QC, told the Military Court Centre in Bulford, Wiltshire: “The prosecution case is that Marine A used a pistol and deliberately shot and killed the unknown man.

“The man had been captured or detained following an earlier incident in which he was wounded by gunfire from an Apache attack helicopter.

“Although Marine A used his pistol – firing the gun at close range into the injured man’s chest – the case is that Marines B and C were all party to the killing. It was not a killing in the heat and exercise of any armed conflict. The prosecution case is that it amounted to an execution, a field execution.” He added: “You may think that knowing that the injured man had suffered severe injuries, the defendants exploited the seriousness of his injuries and used them as a cloak to conceal their own actions.

“They reported that he died of the wounds suffered from the cannon fire from the Apache helicopter.”

Mr Perry said the man’s body was left where he was shot and a memorial erected by locals. He added that photographs of the dead Afghan were recovered from a camera in Marine A’s barrack room.

Other photos showed Marine C holding a pistol above the body as he prodded it with his foot. Mr Perry said: “One of the significant points of the prosecution case is that Marine A had received an assurance from Marine B that the Apache helicopter had gone.

“They are waiting for the Apache helicopter to leave before the shooting takes place.”

Mr Perry described entries in Marine C’s journal. “Marine C wanted to shoot him himself and one of the things he said to Marine A is, ‘ Shall I shoot him in the head?’

“Marine A said, ‘ No that would be too obvious’.” The trial continues.