Military jury finds Edward Gallagher, backed by Trump, not guilty on all but one count in 2017 case

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A military jury in California has found a Navy Seal not guilty of murdering a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq in 2017.

The jury in San Diego on Tuesday also found special operations chief Edward Gallagher not guilty of all other counts except for the violation of posing for photographs with a dead war casualty.

The verdict was seen as a major blow to military prosecutors.

Donald Trump had previously intervened in the case, in a highly unusual act, and spoken out in support of the officer.

Gallagher was accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner who had been wounded by an airstrike in Iraq in 2017, and other crimes.

He had also been accused of attempted murder.

Gallagher reacted to the verdict with “tears of joy, emotion, freedom and absolute euphoria”, his defense lawyer Marc Mukasey said.

“Suffice it to say this is a huge victory,” Mukasey said outside court.

Defense lawyers said Gallagher was framed by disgruntled platoon members who fabricated the allegations to oust their chief. They said there was no physical evidence to support the allegations.

The prosecution said Gallagher’s own text messages and photos incriminated him. They included photos of Gallagher holding the dead militant up by the hair and clutching a knife in his other hand.

A text message Gallagher sent while deployed said: “Got him with my hunting knife.”

The panel of five US marines and two sailors, including one Seal, listened earlier on Tuesday to a recording of Lt Thomas MacNeil, the first witness in the court martial of Gallagher.

MacNeil described hearing Gallagher say “he’s mine” on the platoon radio after learning there was a prisoner who had been wounded in an airstrike.

MacNeil testified about seeing the prisoner alive and then returning later when he was dead.

MacNeil also testified about a custom knife that Gallagher always carried or would hang on the wall of the room they shared. The defendant was accused of using a knife to stab the wounded militant in the neck. He was also accused of shooting civilians, in separate incidents in 2017.

Gallagher had pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including the violations for posing with a human casualty and for allegedly retaliating against Seals who reported him.

In March, 18 congressional Republicans wrote to the navy secretary, Richard Spencer, raising concerns about Gallagher’s confinement at a navy brig in San Diego.

They said family and friends reported Gallagher had not had sufficient access to his attorneys and was not receiving enough food or adequate medical care, describing him as “a decorated war fighter”.

Trump then weighed in from his Florida resort at Mar-a-Lago. Before leaving to play golf one morning he said in a tweet that Gallagher would be moved to less restrictive confinement.

This was “in honor of his past service to our country”, Trump wrote, adding: “Process should move quickly!”