His offence was five counts of failing to comply with lawful orders. Nothing political about it. UK forces are present in Iraq at the request of the Government of Iraq and under UN Mandate.

He goes from the Court Martial to Colchester to be stripped of his rank and demilitarised (This will not be too pleasant a time for Malcolm Kendall-Smith, Colchester is a very, very tough place), he then is transferred to a civilian prison. He has to pay £20,000 of his defence costs from his own personal savings of £140,000 (the pay has obviously gone up somewhat from the time I was in) But he only has to serve half of his sentence the remainder is to be served on licence.

No mention about his request to relinguish his commission which was refused prior to him being ordered back to Basra.