Shameful treatment

HOW much longer must sergeant Alexander Blackman languish in jail, awaiting a decision on his request for an appeal?

Almost three years have passed since a court martial controversially convicted him of murder for killing a dying taliban insurgent in Afghanistan in 2011.

indeed, so shocked were Mail readers by sgt Blackman’s life sentence – originally fixed at a minimum of ten years, though later reduced to eight – that they raised £800,000 to fund a legal campaign for a fresh appeal.

since then, the criminal cases Review commission has spent nine months considering new evidence that could reduce his conviction to manslaughter in view of the appalling psychological strain and leadership failures his unit suffered.

Yet today, the review appears shamefully bogged down in bureaucracy.

A CCRC investigator assigned to his case has been moved on. Barristers who represented him at his court martial have refused to be interviewed.

Extraordinarily, the commission has not even got round to arranging for a psychiatrist to meet sgt Blackman and assess his central defence that he was suffering from battlefield stress.

Yes, this case raises complex questions – some embarrassing to politicians and the military top brass. But isn’t it the very least we owe our soldiers that their cases should be dealt with as promptly as justice allows?

indeed, as it emerges that three other servicemen may be charged over the death of an iraqi teenager, ten years after the evidence against them was found to be deeply tainted, it is deplorable how the threat of legal action hangs over our troops, long after the ordeal of battle.

Rightly, this country demands high standards of conduct from those who risk their lives for us. But surely they, of all people, deserve the highest standards of fairness in return.

Meanwhile, every evening that CCRC investigators go home to their families, leaving sgt Blackman’s file untouched until the morning, means yet another night he has to spend in jail…