This archive report was first published on 3 July 2019.
On July 2, 2019, US Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, 40, was acquitted of murder in a war crimes trial that had sparked intense debate in the US.
However, he was convicted of posing for a photograph beside the corpse of an Islamic State (IS) group fighter, a captive under his command.
The maximum sentence he could face is four months imprisonment, but given the nine months he has already served in pre-trial confinement, he is set to walk free.
The charges stemmed from allegations by men under his own command in the special operations branch of the US Navy, who were deployed to Mosul, Iraq, alongside Iraqi forces battling IS.
Gallagher's case was championed by around 40 Republican members of Congress and the right-wing Fox News channel, with President Donald Trump expressing concern over the prosecution of US soldiers accused of war crimes in May.
