13 years after Red Cap outrage, SAS face charges over hunt for killers
SAS soldiers who tried to find the killers of six British Red Caps in Iraq in 2003 face prosecution after a fouryear probe, it can be revealed.
Ministry of Defence police will hand a file to the military’s prosecution service next month recommending soldiers should be charged with assaulting Iraqi policemen.
As many as 40 elite troops, including a former SAS commander, could face charges of actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm. If found guilty, they could be jailed.
It will be the first time an investigation involving the SAS in Iraq has been deemed serious enough to be passed to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA).
Meanwhile, not a single Iraqi has been held responsible for the Red Caps massacre. The Iraqi policemen, who soldiers believe knew the killers’ names, have already been awarded £800,000 compensation.
Six Royal Military Policemen were executed by ringleaders of a baying mob in Majar alKabir, near Basra, southern Iraq, in June 2003, weeks after Saddam Hussein was toppled. Some of their bodies were riddled with bullets while others had marks suggesting they had been dragged, tied up, or beaten with rifles.
The six murdered Red Caps were: Sgt Simon HamiltonJewell, 41; Cpl Russell Aston, 30; Cpl Paul Long, 24; Cpl Simon Miller, 21; L/Cpl Benjamin McGowan Hyde, 23; and L/Cpl Tom Keys, 20.
Six days after they were slaughtered, SAS soldiers were sent to hunt their killers in a top secret mission codenamed Operation Jocal.
The troops, armed with automatic rifles and pistols, visited the police station where the killings took place.
They removed any clothing identifying them as Special Forces, and put on desert camouflage uniforms and berets associated with the Red Caps.
This tactic was intended to convince the Iraqi policemen that they were friends of the murdered Red Caps.
It was during this operation that Iraqi policemen claimed they were beaten with rifles, punched and had their heads banged against walls.
They said they were hooded and forced into stress positions. Four of the Iraqis, named as Ali Hamid Lazim, Haidar Mohammad, Mohammed Zboon and Mustafa Jbara, claimed they needed hospital treatment after their ordeal.
Nine years later, in 2012, it emerged that the Ministry of Defence police had launched an investigation.
Some 40 troops and a former SAS commanding officer were placed under investigation over the allegations.
The following year, nine of the Iraqi police officers who said they were tortured were awarded around £800,000 in compensation by the MoD after law firm Leigh Day took on the case. The secret payout was arranged by the MoD and the solicitors. Last night it emerged MoD police are preparing a file to hand over to the SPA next month, recommending the soldiers for prosecution.
It is the first time the SPA has been handed a case involving Special Forces in Iraq.
A defence source said: ‘MoD police are preparing to pass files of evidence to the Service Prosecuting Authority in November.’
Only the most serious cases that have a realistic prospect of prosecution are handed to the SPA, the military version of the Crown Prosecution Service. Corporal Simon Miller was shot 34 times in the slaughter. His grieving parents have spent the last 13 years fighting for justice.
Last night they said they were ‘disgusted’ at the treatment of the SAS soldiers.
His father John Miller, 64, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, said: ‘ We are inconsolable. These SAS soldiers are heroes who tried to find my son’s killers. Where is our justice?
‘Where is the justice for my son? This is beyond comprehension, these SAS guys were trying to do their job.
‘All of these investigations against our troops and nobody has done anything to find the murderers of British soldiers, including our son.
‘They washed their hands of my son’s case and have done nothing. Six people were slaughtered, executed, including my son.
‘Who is going to be prepared to face any future enemy when this happens to them?’
WITCH-HUNT AGAINST OUR HEROES