The British high court has ruled that 161 killings by the British military should be subject to hearings modeled on a coroner’s inquest. The ground breaking judgment may decide how the British military is able to carry out operations in the future.
In practice a series of hearings, possibly amounting to more
than 100, are likely to be held as a result of the judgment; the
consequence of a three year legal battle by the families of dead
Iraqis.
The court ruled that each hearing must involve a “full, fair
and fearless investigation accessible to the victim’s families and
to the public” and must not only involve the immediate
circumstances surrounding each death but other circumstances.
The court ruled that the defense secretary, Phillip Hammond,
must announce within six weeks if any of the 161 deaths will result
in prosecutions.
After years of judicial review proceedings the court concluded
that coroner’s inquests were the best way for the British
authorities to meet their obligations under Article 2 of the
European convention on human rights (ECHR), which protects the
right to life.
Throughout the proceedings the Ministry of Defense appeared
anxious to control any investigative process, it was reported by
the Guardian.
However, the court also rejected calls for a single public
inquiry to look at interrogation practices during British military
detention over the six year-long occupation of south east Iraq. It
ruled that such an inquiry would take too long and cost too
much.
11 cases will be heard in the first of the public hearings where
civilians died in military custody. These will then be followed by
public examinations of other incidents where civilians died in
unclear or disputed circumstances where British personal allegedly
used unlawful force.
Once Article 2 hearings are completed — the court ruled —
further hearings should be established to meet the UK’s obligations
under Article 3 of the ECHR. Article 3 will look into allegations
of torture and other mistreatment of individuals who were detained
by British soldiers in Iraq. There are 700 cases in which such
allegations have been made.
14 million in compensation was paid out by the MoD to 205 Iraqis
who alleged unlawful imprisonment and mistreatment in past
trials.
Court stops short of ordering public inquiry
The new hearings are expected to shed light on the Joint Forward
Interrogation Team, whose personnel appear to have actually
received training in the abuse of prisoners, including teenagers
who allegedly drowned after being pushed into canals, according to
the Guardian.
The newspaper’s investigation found that the MoD may have
interfered with a probe by the Royal Air Force (RAF) police into a
man who was a allegedly kicked to death while on an RAF helicopter
and a number of other prisoners who were taken to a secret
interrogation center, which was concealed from both the Red Cross
and British army lawyers.
The judgment from Sir John Thomas the President of the Queen’s
Bench Division of the High Court of Justice and Mr Justice Silber,
the high court judges who presided over the hearings, said that
there was evidence that some of the abuse had been systematic and
also highlighted poor training and a failure to promptly
investigate by senior officers and the government.
In another case, a woman was shot in November 2006 when troops
raided her home; her body was then dumped on the side of the road
in a British army body bag.
Other victims died after being interrogated and are alleged to
have been beaten to death in the same way that Baha Mousa, a hotel
receptionist from Basra was murdered by British soldiers in
September 2006. Baha Mousa’s death was subject to a separate public
inquiry, which ruled that in future detainees must be handled more
humanely.
The allegations involved “murder, manslaughter, the
infliction of serious bodily injury, sexual indignities, cruel
inhuman and degrading treatment and large scale violation of
international humanitarian law,” the court ruled.
The body which investigated the cases is known as the Iraq
Historic Allegations Team (IHAT). It is regarded as independent and
is made up of civilian detectives and service police, which then
answered to an MoD panel. However, the court ruled that IHAT was
not capable of examining how troops were trained, instructed and
supervised.
A lawyer for the Iraqis, Phil Shiner, said that he hoped these
cases will lead to reform in the UK military.
“My clients welcome, at last, the opportunities for
accountability flowing from the judgment. The secretary of state
must ensure that UK forces abroad respect and apply the rule of
law”, he said in a statement.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Defense said: “We welcome
the courts finding that IHAT is independent and carries out its
duties with competence and integrity. We are also pleased that the
secretary of state was justified in concluding that a single
comprehensive public inquiry into allegations of abuse in Iraq
should not be established.”
A full scale public inquiry was not opened because of the
expense and the delay in reaching a verdict, the high court said.
However unlike a public inquiry inquests do not include written
recommendations, which often demand certain practices be
changed.
This article originally appeared on: RT