Links
Royal Navy medic objected to serving in Afghanistan after reading Wikileaks
A Royal Navy medic who objected to deployment to Afghanistan on moral grounds said he felt unable to serve in the wake of WikiLeaks' revelations.
Michael Lyons, 24, cast himself as a conscientious objector after reading of the ''enormous under-reporting of civilian casualties in the conflict I was about to enter''.
But his request to leave the service on such grounds was refused by his commanding officer.
In an emotional appeal against the decision at the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors, he said anecdotal evidence of civilian casualties, including children, prompted him to research the political reasons for the war.
''I was unable to find a real, just and noble cause to go out but I still had a sense of duty to my country,'' he said.