UK: Ex-marine sentenced for killing Taliban fighter

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – A former British soldier was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for killing an injured Afghan Taliban fighter in 2011.

With the conviction, former Sgt. Alexander Wayne Blackman became the first member of the modern British army to be convicted for a murder during an operation.

However, the former Royal Marine will be free in a few weeks after already being in jail for more than three years.

Blackman -- or Marine A, as he was known when his name was protected by anonymity -- originally received a murder conviction but it was reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after a long campaign by his family.

The sentencing came after an appeals court ruled that Blackman's original murder conviction and life sentence should be reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Blackman killed a wounded, unarmed Taliban fighter in Afghanistan after his patrol unit came under fire.

He was dismissed from the army with disgrace.