British general named navy chief despite reported cover-ups of Afghan record 

The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has appointed a controversial former special forces general as the new head of the country’s navy.

Gwyn Jenkins was named on Thursday as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, the head of the British Royal Navy. 

The BBC reported Monday that Jenkins had overseen the rejection of thousands of resettlement applications made by former Afghan soldiers who fought alongside British special forces in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Some of those rejections have since been overturned following a government review.  

In 2022, the British government opened a public inquiry into the activities of British special forces in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013. One anonymous account given at the inquiry said that special forces had been given “a golden pass allowing them to get away with murder.” 

The United Nations describes murder in the context of an armed conflict as a war crime. 

If the former Afghan soldiers had been admitted to the U.K. they could be called as witnesses to the inquiry, but cannot be forced to do so if they are not in the country.

A spokesperson for the defense ministry said that "anyone can provide evidence to the inquiry, no matter where in the world they are. If any potential evidence is — or has been — uncovered by BBC Panorama, we would urge them to get in touch with the inquiry team and the police."

Decisions on whether to accept the applications of former Afghan soldiers to resettle in the U.K. are made on a "case-by-case basis," the spokesperson said. "We remain fully committed to delivering on our pledge to relocate and resettle eligible Afghans and their families to the UK."

The BBC also previously reported that in 2011 Jenkins had failed to refer evidence of “extrajudicial killings” by U.K. special forces to military police. 

Jenkins has since August 2024 been a strategic adviser to U.K. Defence Minister John Healey, who appointed Jenkins as head of the navy. Healey, who met with his German counterpart in Berlin on Thursday, described Jenkins as a “proven leader with a distinguished career in both the military and at the core of government.”