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During a deployment in Iraq in 2008, 1st Lt. Michael Behenna and his platoon believed the man, Ali Mansur, was a terrorist linked to al-Qaida. They took him to a remote part of the Iraqi desert to question him about a previous attack that left two U.S. soldiers dead, according to court filings. During the interrogation, Behenna shot Mansur in the head and chest.
Behenna has said he acted in self-defense and that Mansur had thrown a piece of concrete at him and reached for his gun.
In 2009, the military court found him guilty of “unpremeditated murder in a combat zone,” and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the White House said in a statement Monday. He was released on parole in 2014.
In its statement, the White House said that Behenna “has attracted broad support from the military, Oklahoma elected officials, and the public.”
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“Further, while serving his sentence,” it continued, “Mr. Behenna was a model prisoner. In light of these facts, Mr. Behenna is entirely deserving of this Grant of Executive Clemency.”
Efforts to reach Behenna on Monday night were unsuccessful.
The case, which drew national attention, came at a time when the military was increasingly being scrutinized over its treatment of detainees. Many, however, supported Behenna, and said he had acted justifiably to help U.S. troops in wartime.
The Oklahoma attorney general sent at least three letters over a period of more than a year seeking Behenna’s pardon. He said that Behenna did not deserve “the label ‘murderer,’ or the lifelong punishment and stigma that come with being a federal criminal.”
“Simply put, American troops risking their lives in war to protect us deserve a better legal process than the hand that was dealt to Behenna,” one letter states.
Before the pardon, Behenna was barred in Oklahoma from voting and owning firearms, and would be disqualified from some jobs.
Trump’s pardon is in keeping with statements he has made in support of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a Green Beret charged by the Army in the 2010 killing of a man linked to the Taliban.
“At the request of many, I will be reviewing the case of a ‘U.S. Military hero,’ Major Matt Golsteyn, who is charged with murder,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a Terrorist bomb maker while overseas.”
In Behenna’s case, Mansur was bound and blindfolded during the interrogation, which lasted between two and three minutes, according to the court filing. Mansur’s clothes were cut off with a knife.
“This is your last chance to tell the information or you will die,” Behenna told Mansur, according to a military court filing. Mansur said that he would talk, it said, but Behenna shot him.
Behenna told other soldiers after the killing that “he would do it again, and he did not feel bad about it because he just lost two guys,” according to the filing.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.