UN criticises Donald Trump’s move to pardon soldiers of war crimes
- The three pardoned servicemen included a member of the elite US Army Green Berets accused of murdering a suspected Taliban bomb-maker
“These three cases involve serious violations of international humanitarian law, both proven and alleged, including the shooting of a group of civilians and execution of a captured member of an armed group,” UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said.
Trump on Friday pardoned a former soldier convicted of murder and a Green Beret, or special forces officer, charged with killing a suspected Taliban bomb-maker, defying warnings that it would be an abuse of the powers afforded him under the US Constitution.
Trump dismissed a second-degree murder conviction against Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, who is six years into a 19-year term for ordering soldiers in 2012 to fire on three unarmed Afghan men, two of whom died.
I don’t believe there have been pardons of this type in the US since the Vietnam war.
He granted clemency to West Point graduate Matt Golsteyn, an ex-member of the elite US Army Green Berets, charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of an alleged Taliban bomb-maker in 2010.