GATINEAU, QUE.—Former Canadian military Captain Robert Semrau was described Tuesday as a “warrior” who wanted nothing more than to serve his country and for Canadians to support their troops.

Semrau was dismissed Tuesday from the army and his rank reduced to second lieutenant for shooting a severely injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan two years ago in what was described as a mercy killing.

Semrau, through his lawyer, thanked Canadians — many of whom believed he should not have been charged in the first place — for their support during the 21-month ordeal. Many of Semrau’s fellow soldiers turned out for the sentencing.

“I thought he should have got off, so in my view it (the sentence) is too harsh,” military historian Jack Granatstein told the Toronto Star.

“I prefer to see it as a mercy killing . . . it was the right thing to do rather than leave someone suffering,” Granatstein said.

Evidence produced during case showed Semrau believed he was doing the humane thing by putting the insurgent out of his misery but his actions cost him his budding army career, which up to that point had been “outstanding.”

“Obviously Capt. Semrau is very disappointed. He is a warrior and would love to be serving the Canadian Forces and serving his country. But he thanks . . . the Canadian public for all the support he has been given throughout the process,” Semrau’s lawyer Capt. David Hodson told reporters after the sentencing

“We still have troops overseas in harm’s way; he only asks that you direct your support for those troops who are in harm’s way throughout the world,” Hodson said.

Mercy killing or not, Military Judge Jean-Guy Perron said Semrau’s “disgraceful” conduct — determined by the court martial panel — was “shockingly unacceptable” and could not go unpunished, but he stopped short of sending him to prison or dismissing him with disgrace.

“This conduct is deemed disgraceful because it is so fundamentally contrary to our values and training that it is shockingly unacceptable,” Perron said to Semrau, who, along with his wife, has remained stoic through the ordeal.

Perron acknowledged he had few cases to refer to in deciding on a sentence, given that many of the military’s disgraceful conduct cases deal with sexual misconduct.

On Oct. 19, 2008, Semrau was part of a team of Canadian Forces mentors to the Afghanistan National Army in Helmand province in the southern region of the country, where witnesses said Semrau fired one or two shots into the insurgent, who had been severely wounded in a U.S. helicopter attack. The body was never recovered.

According to testimony, he told his fellow soldiers to turn their heads because “you don’t need to see this” just before they heard gunfire.

The unique case, the first of its kind where a Canadian soldier was charged and convicted for a battlefield shooting, attracted no small amount of public attention.

In taking almost an hour to hand down his decision, Perron said the sentence was necessary “to maintain discipline” but acknowledged the evidence showed he demonstrated “outstanding” leadership prior to the shooting.

“Your actions might have been motivated by an honest belief you were doing the right thing but nonetheless you committed a serious breach of discipline. You failed in your role as a leader,” the military judge said.

“How can we expect our soldiers to follow the laws of war if their officers do not?” he said, adding that every soldier is an ambassador of Canadian values.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce MacGregor, director of military justice policy in the office of the Judge Advocate General (JAG), explained the rank reduction to a junior officer will affect his financial separation from the forces.

Whether the punishment for shooting an unarmed dying man was too lenient or too harsh may end up yet being debated at an appeal, which is considered likely.

“Whether it’s right in the circumstances or not is a very, very difficult decision to make. The man acted out of a sense of chivalry and kindness and how any of us would have reacted in that position is hard to tell,” said Stuart Hendin, an armed conflict and human rights expert at University of Ottawa, who participated in the Somalia inquiry.

Perron told the court martial hearing that because Semrau never took the stand in his own defence he could not determine whether the former British soldier understood that what he did was wrong.

“You have made a decision that will cast a shadow on you for the rest of your life. You intentionally shot the unarmed and wounded insurgent,” Perron said before handing down the sentence.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

At times during the trial Semrau was described both as a top-notch soldier and a disgrace to his uniform.

Perron had been urged to choose between sentencing Semrau to two years less a day in military prison plus release from the armed forces and simply reducing his rank along with a severe reprimand.

Allan English, a military historian at Queen’s University, said what Semrau did was clearly against the laws of war and “I can accept” the judge’s ruling.