NOVA.SCOTIA (CBC) - The Canadian military’s senior prosecutor will press ahead with the court martial of a soldier from Nova Scotia facing multiple charges in the shooting death last year of a comrade in Afghanistan, the Department of National Defence said Monday.

Cpl. Matthew Wilcox, 22, of Glace Bay, N.S., was charged by military investigators last October with manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death and negligently performing a military duty in connection with the death of Cpl. Kevin Megeney.

The acting head of military prosecutions, Lt.-Col. Bruce MacGregor, decided to proceed after considering whether there was enough evidence for a court martial, a DND statement says.

Megeney, 25, died in his tent on March 6, 2007, at the Kandahar Airfield after what the military called an accidental shooting.

DND officials confirmed at the time that the Stellarton native was shot in the chest.

Both men were reservists, members of different batallions of the Nova Scotia Highlanders.

Public interest a factor in court martial decision

According to the DND's website, military prosecutors consider two main issues when deciding whether to prosecute a charge at court martial: whether the evidence is sufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether the public interest requires a prosecution be pursued.

MacGregor said the fact that a man had died was taken seriously when the charges against Wilcox were reviewed.

"In this case, there's a fatality and the need for these types of charges to be dealt with fully, and finally in open court, those are the types of public interests that we would consider," he said.

In a story written for the U.S. magazine Mother Jones, Kevin Patterson, the Canadian military doctor who treated Megeney, described how he tried to save the young soldier’s life after a bullet entered his right chest, just below his armpit.

Patterson wrote that Megeney had no pulse when he was brought into the base hospital at Kandahar.

Members of Megeney’s family were harshly critical of Patterson’s article, published last summer.

Speaking to the Canadian Press last October, Megeney's mother said she was sure the shooting was an accident. Other family members have said they didn't want Wilcox to be charged.

The DND statement says a general court martial will be convened at the first available date.

If convicted of manslaughter, the most serious of the charges against him, Wilcox faces the possibility of life in prison.

With files from the Canadian Press

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