Up to 1,000 British Troops Face War Crimes Probes Over Iraq
Lawyers Say Evidence 'Weak' in Most Cases
Some 1,000 British soldiers are still facing possible war crimes charges related to their role in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation of the nation, according to officials familiar with the situation.
Most of the charges are related to detainee abuse, and are based on testimony from the detainees themselves. Lawyers defending the soldiers say the evidence to support their allegations is “weak” in many of the cases.
Britain has by and large shrugged off war crimes allegations in Iraq, though a public inquiry into the practice after British soldiers tortured hotel receptionist Baha Mousa to death found that there were “systemic” problems related to the treatment of detainees.
Corporal Donald Payne was the only British soldier who pled guilty in Mousa’s killing, and was sentenced to 12 months in prison, the first time a British soldier was ever convicted of a war crime.
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Robert Eichmuller
September 3rd, 2012 at 8:25 am
The picture of the biggest War Criminal is right there , Toni Blair. Now he let's his soldiers take the fall for him. What a coward.
PaulEllertsen
September 3rd, 2012 at 9:48 am
12 months for murder.
No wonder they hate us westerners like the plague.
Its always the same story. Some self righteous politician tells us we need to liberate or protect some foreign people.
Our soldiers, (not the most docile and peaceful characters at the best of times) frustrated by the discrepancy (if they even care) between our propaganda and the reality on the ground lashes out and start abusing random innocents and guilty alike.
Johnny_Warbucks
September 3rd, 2012 at 10:56 am
Probes…LOL! Unless they're anal probes at their own airports, I can see those ending up just like Holder's "probes" into the CIA or Isreal's "probes" into its own war crimes. But the good thing will be that, after they "probe" themselves, they will be able to declare themselves innocents of any wrongdoing and that will become the "official" version that will go down in history as truth. And that, my friends, is how history is truly made: by lying!
PaulEllertsen
September 3rd, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Does anyone know how they landed on 12 months?
Mike
September 3rd, 2012 at 4:32 pm
One of the most important thing all worlds people need to realize,most history when it comes to war is complete lies.And they continue on a daily baises.
the lion
September 3rd, 2012 at 6:53 pm
While the soldiers might have committed War crimes the Prime Minster Blair and Howard and the President GW Bush were in fact bigger War Criminals in that they waged war on Iraq knowing that they conspired to falsify evidence of WMDs. Iraq didnt have WMDs and the WMDs that they said they had (non nuclear) were supplied by the beligerent nations themselves several years earlier to be used to attack a third nation (Iran)