A US Navy Seal has been found not guilty of killing a young Islamic State group (IS) prisoner and other murder charges in a San Diego military court.
Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, 40, was accused of stabbing the injured teenager to death as well as randomly shooting Iraqi civilians.
He was convicted of posing with the 17-year-old's corpse, but acquitted of all other charges.
It comes after another Seal claimed he was the one who killed the prisoner.
Mr Gallagher, a decorated combat veteran who served eight tours, denied all the allegations against him.
The seven-person military jury, which included five Marines and two sailors, delivered the verdict after about eight hours of deliberation.
The maximum sentence for posing for photos with a corpse is four months – but Mr Gallagher has already served nine months in pre-trial confinement.
“We have a sentencing to do, but the maximum sentence of what they're about to sentence him on is much less than the time that they've already had him in the brig,” Mr Gallagher's lawyer Tim Parlatore said after the verdict, according to NBC News. “So he is going home.”
The allegations against the chief came from members of his own platoon in the special operations branch of the US Navy.
But in a surprising twist, Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott testified earlier this month that he asphyxiated the wounded militant while the teenager was in US custody.
The Seal medic said that he…
