GATINEAU, QUE.—Mercy killing is no defence for a Canadian Forces captain who decided to kill a wounded Taliban insurgent, a military prosecutor has told a groundbreaking court martial. That was the argument from Lt.-Col. Mario Leveillee in the landmark court martial of 36-year-old Robert Semrau.
Semrau’s court martial resumed Wednesday with legal arguments expected to take several days. He’s charged with second-degree murder in the death of an unarmed and seriously injured insurgent in Afghanistan in October 2008 in Helmand province.
“Mercy killing is simply not a defence,” Leveillee told the four-member military jury. “It is simply irrelevant.” Leveillee said Semrau, as a trainer of Afghan military forces, did not live up to his legal obligations on the battlefield — to care for an injured enemy fighter. Had the tables been turned, an injured Canadian soldier would have been entitled to the same level of help, he said.
“An enemy who is injured is no longer an enemy.” Leveillee said there is no doubt Semrau fired the fatal two rounds, and that the evidence of other witnesses shows the captain made a number of self-incriminating statements. Semrau never testified at the trial, as is his right under military law.
Leveillee listed several statements attributed to Semrau over the course of his trial: “I had to help him.” “It was a mercy killing.” “I had to put him out of his misery.” “I will take the fall.” “I will wear it.” “I have killed a man and who knows what will come of that.” Semrau is believed to be the first Canadian soldier charged with murder as a result of a battlefield encounter.
Semrau’s trial began four months ago and moved to Afghanistan to hear testimony last month. An Afghan National Army captain who was on the patrol with Semrau testified the Taliban fighter was “98 per cent dead” when they found him. He said the man had lost both legs, his intestines were visible and he was unconscious after being blasted out of a tree by a helicopter gunship.
The captain said regardless of when or how the man died, the result was a foregone conclusion. Semrau had a previously spotless record in stints with both the British and Canadian Forces.
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