No proof of Afghan interpreter's shooting claims, probe finds

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Military investigators say they have found no reason to charge soldiers over a former interpreter's troubling allegations about Canadian Forces conduct in Afghanistan.

Ahmadshah Malgarai, whose Forces codename was "Pasha," told a House of Commons committee in 2010 that Canadian soldiers shot an unarmed Afghan teen in the back of the head in June, 2007, and then tried to cover it up.

He refused to co-operate with the military investigation. Mr. Malgarai's lawyer said this is because the military declined to bring in outside investigators as he'd requested and the ex-interpreter felt the outcome of the probe was predetermined last spring when General Walter Natynczyk, the head of the military, issued a statement saying the shooting was justified.

Mr. Malgarai also alleged that Canadian soldiers deliberately transferred prisoners to abuse and turned a blind eye to their later mistreatment by the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's notorious and torture-prone intelligence service.

"I saw Canadian military intelligence sending detainees to the NDS when the detainees did not tell them what they expected to hear," Mr. Malgarai told the special Commons committee on Afghanistan.

Effectively, he said, "the military used the NDS as subcontractors for abuse and torture."

But the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service - part of the military police - said on Tuesday that while Canadian soldiers shot and killed a 17-year-old male in the case Mr. Malgarai recounted, the killing was justified.

Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Sansterre, commanding officer of the CFNIS, would not say whether the male was shot in the back of the head, but said: "I can assure you he was armed … and he posed a threat."

The shooting occurred during a Canadian-led attack on the night of June 18 and the morning of June 19, 2007, on a compound linked to bomb-making insurgents who were planning rocket attacks.

Last spring, Canada's top soldier explained why the military believed the shooting was appropriate. "During the mission, an armed individual posed a direct and imminent threat to Canadian Forces soldiers as they entered the compound," Gen. Natynczyk wrote last April to the chair of the Afghan committee.

"A shooter who was providing support to the operation identified the individual and assessed that he was a threat and shot the individual," Gen. Natynczyk said.

There is friction between Mr. Malgarai and the Canadian government. Mr. Malgarai alleges that someone in the Forces leaked his real name and identity to the Taliban, calling it punishment for complaining to them about detainee transfers. The ex-interpreter said this led to death threats from the Taliban and forced his family to flee Afghanistan as refugees.

Mr. Malgarai had told the Commons committee that an Afghan colonel refused to take a detainee suffering battlefield injuries. He said the NDS colonel, in front of two Department of Foreign Affairs advisers, placed his pistol on the table and said, "Here is my gun. Go shoot him. Give me the body and I will justify it for you."

Mr. Malgarai said one Foreign Affairs official, Ed Jager, immediately told the colonel: "I will pretend you did not say [that]and I did not hear it."

Military investigators said on Tuesday that Canadian soldiers and Foreign Affairs officials who were interviewed confirmed that a meeting with the NDS had taken place at which questions were raised about a detainee's medical condition before transfer. However, they said they did not recall a gun being brandished or offers to kill the prisoner.

"Neither Canadian Forces nor Foreign Affairs officials present had any recollection of a gun being exhibited nor that the detainee's life was threatened during this meeting. This detainee remained in Canadian custody and received medical care until he recovered sufficiently to be transferred."