British soldiers sue Ministry of Defence following Iraq abuses claims

The former soldiers have rejected the implication of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT)’s intensive investigation into 1,500 allegations of abuse and killing.

The investigation, a £57 million ($74.6 million) tax-payer funded inquiry launched in 2010, is investigating 250 accounts of murder, torture and sexual abuse perpetrated by British troops whilst serving in Iraq.

“They were following orders while on patrol and then out of the blue they have received threats of prosecution and the MoD is not standing behind them,” lawyer Hilary Meredith said.

One soldier, who faces prosecution for the murder of an Iraqi man, demanded “simple common decency” from the MoD in a letter to the Commons Defence Committee yesterday. “Supporting personnel and veterans that are accused doesn’t pervert justice, nor does it infringe the independent of the investigation,” he added.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted that the government would not consider any  “vexatious allegations” relating to historic abuse claims against British troops in Iraq and that checks were in place to filter out abuses of the system. She further added that Britain should be proud of the “disciplined way” British forces operate.

Sir George Newman, a retired High Court judge, did not share May’s sentiments when he condemned four soldiers who forced an Iraqi child into a canal at gunpoint during the British occupation of Basra in 2003, in a damning report released this month by the Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI).

Since 2013, the British government has requested the IFI to investigate only four Iraqi civilian deaths in order to satisfy the legal requirements laid out by the European Convention on Human Rights.