Robert Semrau held in military police custody

A Canadian Forces captain must now await a custody hearing after having his day in military court on January 6th.

At least one witness testified as seeing Capt. Robert Semrau, of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, shoot and kill a severely wounded and unarmed insurgent during an ambush in October.

The hearing will decide whether Semrau will be released until his trial, which isn’t expected until sometime after the summer.

This issue should ignite some heated debate across the country about whether this act can be considered a mercy killing or whether it is, in fact, murder.

It is reported that Semrau was commanding an Operational Mentor and Liaison Team on Oct. 19 in the Helmand province of Afghanistan when they, as well as Afghan soldiers, were ambushed. With help from American military helicopters the insurgents were fought off. After the air strike, Afghan soldiers moved in and found one Taliban fighter dead, along side another who was still armed but severely wounded. Once disarmed, it was determined that the insurgent’s wounds were “too severe for any type of treatment.”
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