US Navy SEAL receives slap on wrist for posing with dead Iraqi prisoner

A US Navy SEAL, who was acquitted of killing a wounded Iraqi prisoner but convicted of posing with the corpse, has received a light sentence. 

Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was sentenced on Wednesday by a military jury composed of war veterans to a reduction in rank and four months of confinement.

Charges of murder, attempted murder and other counts stemming from an incident during Gallagher's 2017 deployment to Iraq were dropped by the jury.

The jury ordered Gallagher's rank to be reduced to petty officer 1st class and fined him $10,788 equivalent to four months salary.

The judge then reduced the sentence, capping the pay cut at $5,594.

However, the judge gave Gallagher two months credit for being held in overly harsh conditions before being tried, as well as being deprived of medical treatment for brain injury. In addition, Gallagher also got credit for 201 days of pretrial confinement.

The Navy prosecutor had asked for a reduction in rank, and not any prison time. 

Gallagher told the jury he was fully responsible for his actions on the day he took photos with the body of the 17-year-old prisoner.

One image showed him clutching the hair of the corpse with one hand and holding a knife in another.

"Got him with my hunting knife," Gallagher wrote in a text with the photo.

The prosecutor, Lt. Brian John, said Gallagher was the platoon chief and should not have been the centerpiece of the photos in which nearly all the members posed with the body. John said Gallagher should have stopped the photos from being taken.

"For that reason, he no longer deserves to wear anchors," the prosecutor said.

President Donald Trump, who intervened earlier this year to get Gallagher a lighter sentence, tweeted congratulations to the SEAL and his family.

"You have been through much together. Glad I could help!" the president wrote.

Gallagher thanked Trump along with Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

"I've made mistakes throughout my 20-year career — tactical, ethical, moral — I'm not perfect," he said. "I put a black eye on the two communities that I love — the US Marine Corps and the US Navy — specifically the SEAL community."

He added that the SEALs in his platoon, who had reported his criminal activities to his military superiors, "in no way, shape or form represent the community that I love."

The most important quality in a Navy SEAL "loyalty, is a trait that seems to be lost," he complained.

 "You're there to watch your brother's back, and he's there to watch your back," he said in a message to future Navy SEALs.