page_title: 2011 Helmand Province killing
section_title: Anonymity orders
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 Helmand Province killing / Anonymity orders
caption_attribution_description: English: London, Royal Courts of Justice
context_page_description: The 2011 Helmand Province killing was the manslaughter of an injured Taliban insurgent by Alexander Blackman, which occurred on 15 September 2011. Three Royal Marines, known during their trial as Marines A, B, and C, were anonymously tried by court-martial. On 8 November 2013, Marines B and C were acquitted, but Marine A was initially found guilty of murder of the Afghan unlawful combatant, in contravention of section 42 of the Armed Forces Act 2006. This made him the first British soldier to be convicted of a battlefield murder whilst serving abroad since the Second World War.
  On 6 December 2013, Blackman was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of ten years, and dismissed with disgrace from the British Armed Forces. On 22 May 2014, the Courts Martial Appeal Court reduced his minimum term to eight years.
  In March 2017, the conviction for murder was overturned and reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Sergeant Blackman was released from prison on 28 April 2017 but his dismissal from the Marines remains in place.
context_section_description: Running in parallel to the Marines' criminal trial were legal proceedings relating to the anonymity of the defendants. In the autumn of 2012, Judges Advocate Elsom and Blackett issued anonymity orders for the Marine defendants due to the risk that, once named, the defendants would become targets for terrorists. The move had been opposed by elements of the UK media. A lawyer for the Press Association argued that anonymity orders should not be issued in this case because, firstly, British military award recipients named in the media had not been previously targeted; and, secondly, that the names of those British service personnel investigated following the death of Baha Mousa had not been similarly protected. The 2012 anonymity orders were upheld at the beginning of the trial in October 2013.
  On 5 December 2013, Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and two other High Court judges lifted the existing anonymity order on Marine A, allowing him to be named as Sergeant Alexander Wayne Blackman. The same ruling had it that the identities of Marines B and C also be revealed unless they submit an appeal to the Supreme Court. No such appeal was lodged within the set deadline, and so, on 19 December 2013, Marine B was named as Corporal Christopher Glyn Watson and Marine C was named as Marine Jack Alexander Hammond. The anonymity of Marines D and E was upheld on 19 December "pending any further order by the Judge Advocate General".
  Jeff Blackett also restricted public access to the evidence used at the trial, releasing on 8 November stills, audio clips and transcripts from the serviceman's video that was played to the court-martial board, but ruling that the full video itself not be released, since doing so "would increase the threat of harm to British service personnel." On 5 December 2013, the Court Martial Appeal Court upheld the earlier decisions prohibiting the release of the video footage of the attack and some of the stills from it. The Court stated, however, that the prohibition was to prevent the material being used for radicalisation, rather than it posing a risk to the life of the defendants.
caption: The Law Courts building, housing the High Court, which issued a ruling leading to three of the Marines involved being publicly named
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