British Iraq veterans may face Hague trial

British Iraq veterans and commanders face possible trial in The Hague, the International Criminal Court has suggested, after deciding there was “reasonable basis” to believe troops committed war crimes. The ICC will examine whether the UK’S own investigation was sufficient.

BRITISH Army Iraq veterans and commanders face possible trial in The Hague, the International Criminal Court has suggested, after deciding there was “reasonable basis” to believe troops committed war crimes.

The ICC prosecutor said it would press on with inquiries into British war crimes against detainees, even though one of the lawyers who brought the allegations has since been struck off.

The court will now look at whether the crimes were sufficiently serious to merit prosecution and whether Britain’s own investigations have been rigorous enough. The Ministry of Defence last night said it was confident Britain’s seven-year-long investigation by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) meant there was no need for a trial.

But Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor, appeared to criticise the handling and independence of Ihat, which was shut down earlier this year. She said the Ihat investigation, which failed to convict a single soldier in seven years, had been closed “amid concerns of political interference”.

She also said she had received allegations that “international forces” had committed abuses in Afghanistan.

Hilary Meredith, a lawyer for several veterans cleared by Ihat, said: “Let’s be absolutely clear, the Ihat was shut down because it was a witch hunt against our troops which did not result in a single prosecution. Closure came at a price – not only the £60million cost to the taxpayer but the shattered lives, careers, marriages and health of those falsely accused over many years.”

A report from the ICC found that “there is reasonable basis to believe that members of the UK armed forces committed war crimes, within the jurisdiction of the Court, against persons in their custody,” Mrs Bensouda said.

Lawyers including Phil Shiner, founder of Public Interest Lawyers, in 2014 persuaded The Hague-based prosecutor to reopen an investigation into war crimes after supplying a dossier of allegations which claimed that at least 1,071 Iraqi detainees were tortured and ill-treated between March 2003 to December 2008. However Mr Shiner was earlier this year struck off after being found to have acted dishonestly, recklessly and without integrity while bringing false allegations.

Mrs Bensouda’s office said individual statements received from his firm “could be considered credible enough if substantiated with supporting material” such as detention records, medical certificates and photographs.

Johnny Mercer MP, who led a damning parliamentary inquiry into Ihat said: “Our inability to deal properly with historical allegations continues to dog the MOD.” A government spokesman said: “We have a legal responsibility to investigate credible allegations of wrongdoing by UK forces, and that is what we are already doing. We are confident that our existing efforts to investigate allegations preclude the need for any investigation by the ICC.”