Poland Court Clears Soldiers of Violations of Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan (March 19, 2015) [1]
On March 19, 2015, the Military District Court in Warsaw (the Court) cleared four Polish soldiers of war crimes for their role in the killing of six civilians in Afghanistan in 2007. According to one report [3], the soldiers participated in U.S. and NATO-led military operations in Afghanistan where their patrol attacked Nangar Khel, a village in southeastern Afghanistan, using automatic weapons and mortar shells, killing six people, including three children. The soldiers were first charged, tried, and acquitted of war crimes in 2011 [4]. At the new trial, they maintained the deaths had been accidental and due to faulty equipment. The four were convicted of negligence; three received suspended prison terms and one, who was found guilty of a lesser charge, did not receive a sentence. According to another report [5], a spokesperson for the Court indicated that the Court “did not establish that the soldiers’ actions were deliberate. The shooting of the village was not on purpose, neither was the killing of the civilians.” The report also notes that “[t]heir trial was the first time in more than 70 years that Poland's military had been involved in a war crimes prosecution.”