War crimes in Afghanistan
Troops from the United States and United Kingdom, two of Australia's coalition partners in Afghanistan, have also faced allegations of committing unlawful killings.
According to US military prosecutors, a group of US Army soldiers killed Afghan civilians for sport beginning in January 2010.
The case drew international outrage when Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, published photos that showed two of the soldiers posing over dead bodies of Afghans. In November 2011, the mastermind of what was called a "kill team," Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs, was sentenced to life in military prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years.
A military court-martial found Gibbs guilty of murdering three Afghan civilians, illegally cutting off pieces of their corpses to keep as "souvenirs" and planting weapons to make the men appear as if they were Taliban fighters killed in legitimate firefights.
Five soldiers were convicted for various roles in the conspiracy. Six other soldiers, including one who posed for photos with a dead Afghan, accepted plea deals, the military has said.
Last year, US President Donald Trump pardoned two US Army soldiers who had served in Afghanistan. One of those had been found guilty in 2013 of second-degree murder for ordering his men to fire on three unarmed men on a motorcycle in Afghanistan. He was serving a 19-year prison sentence when Trump pardoned him. The other had been charged with the murder of a detained Afghan man in 2010, but was pardoned before trial.
Meanwhile, a UK inquiry into alleged unlawful killings by British troops in Afghanistan, Operation Northmoor, was shut down in 2017 without any charges being brought.
In a separate case, one British Royal Marine, was convicted in a court martial of murder for shooting an unarmed Taliban prisoner in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison.
His conviction was reduced to manslaughter on appeal and in 2017 he was released from prison after serving three years.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/18/a...hnk/index.html