WASHINGTON — US service members involved in the burning of Korans at a military base in Afghanistan last February likely will face administrative punishments instead of criminal charges, according to US officials.
A recently-concluded investigation recommended administrative action against several of the service members involved in the burning, according to a US official. The Department of Defense is still considering possible action, and top US Army and US Navy officials will decide what, if any, discipline to impose, military officials said.
Administrative punishment would not entail court martial proceedings, unless such trials were demanded by the accused, and would involve relatively light punishments, such as a reduction in rank or short-term confinement to a military base.
The recommendations grew out of a military investigation that concluded that mistakes were made by a naval petty officer and army soldiers who were handling Korans at the Parwan Detention Facility, a prison, the US official said.
Defense officials previously described how the Korans and other Islamic texts were removed from the prison after it was discovered detainees were using them to pass messages and communicate. The Korans were then placed with the other material to be thrown in a burn pit at Bagram Air Field.
The investigation concluded that there was no criminal action or malicious intent in the destruction of the religious texts, according to the US official.
The burning of the Korans touched off days of violence and rioting across Afghanistan.
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