An American soldier charged with killing Afghan civilians and mutilating their corpses has been sentenced to 60 days hard labor.
He was also found guilty of smoking hashish and assaulting another soldier, Adam Winfield, who blew the whistle on the activities of the so-called “kill team.”
Winfield first alreted his father about the unit's activities on Facebook while stationed in Afghanistan, but has since been charged with having a role in the murders.
A dozen soldiers from the Bravo Company unit of the Fifth Stryker Combat Brigade in Kandahar province now stand accused of various crimes in the case.
According to a US Army investigation, five members of the unit are charged with committing three counts of premeditated murder against unarmed Afghan civilians.
Defendants include Special Sergeant Jeremy Morlock, 22, along with three others, who were allegedly following orders from Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 25. They are accused of killing Afghan civilians as a sport and collecting their body parts -- including a human skull -- as trophies.
The seven others have been charged with related crimes such as drug use, impeding the investigation and retaliatory gang assault on the private who blew the whistle.
Reports indicate that one soldier was scheduled to stand trial on Thursday but that has been postponed.
The first unprovoked murder is alleged to have occurred on January 15, 2010.
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