28 Oct 2013

Marines murder trial: transcript released to court

28_afghan_w_MED

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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