By IRNS,
London : A second British soldier was reported Thursday to have been jailed for being absent without leave after refusing to be sent to Afghanistan.
Rifleman Lee Moxon was sentenced to two years in a military prison for desertion at a court martial in Colchester, east of London, according to the Metro newspaper.
The 26-year-old soldier was said to have went absent without leave for a second time “because he feared what would happen to him when his regiment went back to war after losing 30 men on the last tour.”
At the court martial, judge advocate Emma Peters was quoted saying that Moxon, who previously went absent after his partner had a miscarriage, was “too immature to fact things sensibly.”
In April, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton (pictured) lost an appeal against his sentence after becoming the first British soldier to publicly refuse to return to Afghanistan.
After previously serving one term in Afghanistan, Glenton made headlines last year after he handed himself in and wrote to Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying that he believed the Afghanistan war would fail and British troops should be withdrawn.
“It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy,” the 27-year old lance corporal said.
“The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk – far from improving Afghan lives, it is bringing death and devastation to their country,” he also warned.