London, July 6 (ANI): A Royal Navy medic has been sentenced to seven months imprisonment after he refused to fire a gun because he disagreed with the war in Afghanistan.
A panel of five Naval officers at a court martial at HMS Nelson, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, found leading Medical Advisor Michael Lyons guilty of willfully disobeying the order by an officer to pick up an SA80 as part of rifle training on the grounds that it was 'against his moral beliefs.'
Twenty-five-year-old Lyons told a court martial that he disobeyed the order by an officer to pick up an SA80 as part of rifle training on the grounds that it was 'against his moral beliefs,' adding that he became disillusioned with the service after reading about troops killing civilians on whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
He had already applied for, but had been denied, conscientious objector status when he was ordered to undertake the rifle training before a tour to Afghanistan, the Daily Mail reports.
Prosecutor Commander Darren Reed told the hearing today that the only thing that distinguishes a military force from an armed mob is 'discipline,' which Lyons failed to display.
In December 2009, Lyons became the first person to appear before the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors since 1996. (ANI)
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