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US Navy SEAL Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher arrives at court for the start of his court-martial trial at Naval Base San Diego in San Diego, California, US, 18 June – Reuters
SAN DIEGO (Reuters): A Navy SEAL medic testified on Thursday that he was responsible for the death of an Islamic State fighter – not the Navy SEAL defendant undergoing a court martial for war crimes – describing it as a mercy killing.
Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a SEAL team medic, said under cross-examination by the defence in a courtroom at the San Diego Naval Base that he killed the fighter by asphyxiation, after he saw Gallagher stab the victim with a knife.
Scott said he held his thumb over a breathing tube that had been inserted into the mouth of a fighter, who had a leg wound and collapsed lung following house-to-house fighting in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2017.
The fighter had been captured by Iraqi forces and dumped on the ground at a base outside Mosul, the prosecution said in its opening statement on Monday.
Prosecutors say Gallagher, 39, who began his 18-year career as a medic, briefly treated the young Islamic State fighter, then pulled out his knife and stabbed him in the neck several times.
Scott, who was called to the stand by the defence, said the fighter was breathing normally after he and Gallagher treated him for wounds suffered in an air strike, but then saw Gallagher stab the young militant once with his knife.
Scott said the fighter survived the stabbing. But Scott said he blocked the young man’s air tube thinking he would eventually be tortured to death by Iraqi forces.
Scott’s testimony under immunity from prosecution appeared to take the prosecutors by surprise and stunned the courtroom, witnesses said.
The judge denied an immediate defence motion to dismiss the case.
The seven-sailor jury at the court martial must decide whether the fighter’s death was murder as alleged by the prosecution or a mutiny by sailors under Gallagher’s command in Iraq, as the defence contends.
Gallagher could face life in prison if convicted in the trial arising from his 2017 deployment to Mosul, Iraq.
Defence attorney Tim Parlatore said the surprising admission from Scott that he had asphyxiated the wounded fighter showed that the prosecution never asked about the cause of death and the Navy Criminal Investigation service had gone into the case with minds made up.
