Marine A: Sergeant Alexander Blackman to be released from prison on Friday

Alexander Blackman will have served half of his seven-year sentence for manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility

Charlotte England
Thursday 27 April 2017 16:12 BST
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A Royal Marine who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan, will be released from prison on Friday, according to the group set up to campaign for his release.

Alexander Blackman - who was previously only identified as Marine A - had his murder conviction overturned in March after a three-and-a-half year court battle.

The Justice For Marine A campaign group said the 42-year-old will now be released from prison.

While cleared of murder, five judges at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London instead found him guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He was sentenced to seven years, but his legal team calculated he would reach the halfway point of his term this month - a point at which people sentenced to a determinate term are usually released.

He will be set free in the early hours of the morning.

On 15 September 2011, Blackman took aim at the chest of a wounded Taliban fighter with his 9mm pistol and pulled the trigger, uttering the words: “Shuffle off this mortal coil you c***. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.”

The killing was recorded by the helmet-mounted camera of a fellow serviceman and he was was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years.

The minimum term was later reduced to eight years because of the combat stress disorder he was suffering from.

After his murder conviction was overturned, his wife Claire Blackman said she was “delighted” by the decision.

She added that it “much better reflects the circumstances that my husband found himself in during that terrible tour of Afghanistan”.

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