CO status refused
Michael Lyons, a 24-year-old “leading medical assistant” in the navy, was ordered to deploy to Afghanistan in June, but, after reading WikiLeaks documents, decided to leave the service. Taking advice from military counselling group At Ease, Michael appealed to the “advisory committee on conscientious objectors”, which last met in 1996.
At its 17 December hearing, Michael argued that the Wiki-Leaks documents led him to conclude: “I couldn’t serve on moral grounds and I couldn’t see any political reason for being [in Afghanistan]”. The committee upheld the refusal to recognise Michael as a CO.
Topics: War resisters