US President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan.
In 2012, Lieutenant Clint Lorance ordered troops to open fire when a motorcycle with three men approached them in an “unusual speed” as a result of which two were killed, according to a statement from the White House.
He was convicted several charges and has served more than six years of a 19-year sentence he received.
The other officer pardoned was Major Mathew Golsteyn who was charged with an unlawful killing and was facing a court martial.
According to the White House statement, Golsteyn had shot a man suspected of making a bomb that had killed two Marines “because he was certain that the terrorist’s bombmaking activities would continue to threaten American troops and their Afghan partners, including Afghan civilians who had helped identify him.”
