Robert Semrau to be sentenced Sept. 9
A Canadian soldier described both as top-notch and a disgrace to his uniform will discover his fate Sept. 9 for shooting a severely wounded, unarmed insurgent in Afghanistan. Military Judge Jean-Guy Perron has said it will take him that long to sort through the arguments and evidence offered by defence and prosecution on appropriate sentencing for Capt. Robert Semrau, convicted of disgraceful conduct.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/840611--robert-semrau-to-be-sentenced-sept-9
Semrau should be discharged: General Thompson
Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, commander of Task Force Kandahar at the time that Capt Semrau shot and killed a severely wounded Taliban insurgent, said a message must be sent to soldiers and to the public that such conduct is "completely unacceptable... I don't think we have any other option but to relieve him from service," he told the hearing, adding he was speaking for the Canadian Forces chain of command in making his recommendation. He was the only witness called by the prosecution in the sentencing hearing.
Capt Semrau was an ‘amazing’ leader, private testifies
(26 July 2010) Captain Robert Semrau was an “amazing” leader who repeatedly risked his life for his soldiers while mortars rained down in Afghanistan, a Canadian army private told a military court martial. While men who served with Semrau testified before the sentencing hearing that they would gladly do so again, the military brass through BGen Denis Thompson made it clear they want Semrau gone from the armed forces. “From my experience he is a great leader and a great man,” said Villeneuve, recalling how Semrau risked his life several times to provide first aid to Afghan National Army soldiers who were part of a mentoring program led by the Canadian armed forces.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/840212--private-testifies-that-semrau-was-an-amazing-leader
Semrau risked life to treat injured Afghans
Little case law to guide Semrau judge
(26 July 2010) The judge who must decide on a punishment for Capt. Robert Semrau will have few precedents to guide his deliberations, which begin today in a Gatineau courtroom. Semrau, 36, has been convicted of disgraceful conduct for shooting an unarmed, wounded Taliban insurgent in Helmand province, though evidence at his three-month trial suggested the Oct. 19, 2008, shooting was a mercy killing. University of Ottawa law professor Michel Drapeau said Semrau's is the only case he knows of in which an officer has been found guilty of disgraceful conduct on a battlefield. "It's very, very rare," said Drapeau, a retired colonel in the Canadian Forces and an expert in military law.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Little+case+guide+Semrau+judge/3322369/story.html
Captain Semrau did the right thing
Toronto Sun
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.”
~ Rudyard Kipling, 1895
When Capt. Robert Semrau is sentenced Monday for disgraceful conduct, having been acquitted of second-degree murder of a severely-wounded Taliban fighter, it will be a miscarriage of justice as well as denunciation of moral standards. Capt. Semrau did the right thing.
But what would the court martial panel know about combat, since it was made up of administrative and logistics officers, none with battlefield experience? It was hardly a jury of peers.
The Taliban insurgent — one leg severed at the hip, another desperately damaged, his guts pouring out of his abdomen after being strafed out of a tree by a U.S. military helicopter — had no chance of survival, and was already being kicked and spat upon by Afghan soldiers under Semrau’s watch.
After witnessing this, should Semrau have left the Talib on that Afghan plain to suffer even more? Or should he have ended his life mercifully?
Afghanistan has obviously not changed much since Rudyard Kipling wrote that poem 115 years ago and, if Capt. Semrau was lying on that dusty plain like the mortally-wounded Taliban fighter, he would have likely begged for the strength to roll to his rifle, blow out his brains, and go to his God like a soldier. Or pray someone would assist in that journey.
Looking back on that day in October, 2008, there was no way for a medical evacuation. Afghanistan’s Helmand Province was infested with hostiles, all which necessitated the call for backup by U.S. attack helicopters. It was either put the man out of his misery, or leave him to the buzzards.
The laws that govern our lives have their foundation in a moral code. It is a moral code that embraces compassion. By all accounts, the 36-year-old Semrau, a married father of two little girls, is a good man and a good soldier.
Any sentence that dishonours Semrau is dishonourable, just as his conviction for disgraceful conduct is already a disgrace.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/editorial/2010/07/23/14810421.html
Semrau acquitted of murder, but found guilty of disgraceful conduct
(19 July) Capt. Robert Semrau has been found guilty by a military panel of disgraceful conduct but not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of a wounded Afghan insurgent. The charge of behaving in a disgraceful manner carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Semrau's lawyers will be back in court Tuesday to present a Charter of Rights argument over military sentencing procedures. The panel in Gatineau, Que., handed down the decision Monday. It came after three days of deliberations in the court martial of the Canadian Forces captain charged in a battlefield death in Afghanistan.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/07/19/semrau-court-martial.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/07/19/semrau-court-martial.html#ixzz0uchqmGGE
Honour’s battlefield: The day that led to Semrau's trial for a battlefield killing
(18 July 2010) The murder case against Capt. Robert Semrau made national headlines because it involved sensational allegations of a battlefield mercy killing. But Semrau’s trial unfolded an even more compelling story: that of four soldiers faced with a searing moral crisis. Each man must now live with the decisions he made. Andrew Duffy reports.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Battlefield+killing+that+Capt+Semrau+court+martial/3292219/story.html
Soldier Semrau's fate in hands of jury
The fate of a Canadian Forces captain charged with committing a battlefield murder in Afghanistan is now in the hands of a jury of his uniformed peers. Military Judge Lt.-Col. Jean-Guy Perron took more than four hours to deliver his final instructions to the jury. "It is not enough for you to find Capt. Semrau is probably guilty," Perron told jurors. "Likely guilt is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/07/17/semrau-jury-deliberations.html
In the heat of battle, what is ’murder’?
(9 July 2010) Canada doesn't send monsters into combat. Our soldiers are not bloodthirsty killers eager to "off" as many enemy as possible. They are as intelligent, thoroughly trained and compassionate as any soldiers in the world.
Facebook site supports Capt Robert Semrau
(8 July 2010) Final Remarks have been delivered in the court-martial case of Captain Semrau. Currently over 8,000 people have signed up to question how a man who left his country and family to fight for the freedom of all people could be facing 10 years in jail for allegedly putting a dying enemy out of his misery. Link here to join the site:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41254404235
Testimony ends in military murder trial
(7 July 2010) The prosecution and defence presented final arguments Wednesday in the court martial of Canadian Forces Capt. Robert Semrau, accused of murdering a wounded Taliban insurgent on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2008. Semrau, 36, of CFB Petawawa, is charged with second-degree murder, behaving in a disgraceful manner and negligent performance of duty. The prosecution alleges he fired two tracer rounds into the body of a severely wounded Taliban fighter on Oct. 19, 2008 while on a mission with the Afghan National Army. Prosecutors have characterized his actions as a misguided mercy killing, an act that violated both the Criminal Code and the Canadian Forces Code of Conduct.
http://news.globaltv.com/contests/extras/Testimony+ends+military+murder+trial/3246776/story.html
