Green Beret discharged for shoving Afghan Commander suspected of keeping 12-year-old boy as sex slave speaks out

Charles Martland was discharged from the army and was denied of his court appeal

Sergeant First Class Charles Martland, who got discharged from the army after confronting an Afghan police commander for allegedly raping a 12-year-old boy breaks his silence

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Catholic Online) - The 33-year-old solider from Massachusetts said the decision to kick him out of the Special Forces is "morally wrong" after his appeal was rejected last week.

Martland, who was serving in 2011 at the Kunduz Province, found out an Afghan police commander he trained had allegedly been keeping a 12-year-old boy as a sex slave.

He and his team leader, Daniel Quinn received reports that the officer, Abdul Rahman, had apparently tied the boy a post in Rahman's house, where he raped the child anywhere from 10 days to two weeks.

Rahman also had beaten the 12-year-old's mother after she reported him for sexual assault. In response to the accusations, Martland and Quinn confronted Rahman at the man's house.

Following an exchange, Rahman was shoved to the ground by Martland and suffered only a few bruises but both Green Berets were disciplined.

Martland said in his public statement, "Kicking me out of the army is morally wrong and the entire country knows it." He believes the atrocities Rahman committed are part of why the Afghan people turned against the U.S. forces.

In his statement, Martland said, "While I understand that a military lawyer can say that I was legally wrong, we felt a moral obligation to act." He also wrote that he and Quinn felt they could no longer allow the Afghan local police to continue such horrific practices.

Col. Steve Johnson, who commanded Martland before his 2011 deployment, stated Martand and Quinn should embed themselves with Afghan forces instead of acting against them. Johnson was quoted saying, "You cannot try to impose American values and American norms to Afghan culture because they're completely different."

When Martland returned from his involuntary discharged from the Army, he quit his service in the military and landed a job on Wall Street. Just last week, Martland was told that his case does not meet the criteria for an appeal. However, he has the option to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.

Meanwhile, White House Press secretary Josh Earnest said that America will continue to stand up to those who were denied of human rights. According to Earnest, as the United States works closely with the Afghan government in ending child exploitation, they also want to incorporate human rights training into their law-enforcement programs to promote awareness in prosecution of such crimes.

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