He released Gallagher from custody, removed the lead prosecutor and lessened the maximum penalty he faces if convicted of premeditated murder to life imprisonment with parole – instead of no parole. Instead, he said he was taking steps to remedy the interference. Rugh, however, refused to dismiss the case.

The judge, Captain Aaron Rugh, earlier this month ruled the prosecution’s effort to track defence emails to find a news leak cast doubt on Gallagher’s ability to get a fair trial and violated his constitutional rights against illegal searches and the right to counsel by interfering with attorney-client privilege. Gallagher’s lawyers asked the Navy judge to dismiss the case because they say investigators and prosecutors withheld evidence that could help the defence and violated his rights to a fair trial by embedding tracking software in emails sent to them.

The defendant has said disgruntled platoon mates fabricated the allegations because they did not like his tough leadership. Gallagher has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder in the killing of the wounded prisoner in his care by stabbing him in the neck, and attempted murder in the shootings of two unarmed civilians – a school girl and an elderly man – from a sniper’s perch in Iraq’s Mosul city in 2017 in separate incidents. The pre-trial proceedings included the removal of the lead prosecutor for tracking the defence team’s emails amid suggestions by President Donald Trump that he may pardon the defendant. The court martial of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, 39, is expected to last three weeks, beginning on Monday with the selection of between five and 15 active-duty Navy officers and enlisted personnel as jury members. A trial of a decorated US Navy SEAL charged with a wounded ISIL prisoner’s murder – one of the Navy’s most prominent war crimes cases – is set to begin at US Naval Base San Diego on Monday.

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