Judicial review for inquiry into Iraq abuse by UK soldiers
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, July 17, IRNA -- A judicial review was granted Friday to challenge the British government’s refusal to order a single inquiry into the alleged abuse and torture of over 100 Iraqi civilians by UK troops.
The permission was given by the High Court in London that ruled there was “an arguable case that the alleged ill-treatment was systemic, and not just at the whim of individual soldiers.”
Representing the Iraqi victims, Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers said there were “100s of Iraqi civilians making 1000s of allegations of being subjected to repeated sexual, physical and psychological abuse.”
“The Court has today sent a clear signal that they expect the truth to be uncovered and these matters efficiently and fully investigated,” Shiner said in a statement sent to IRNA.
He said that the inquiry must take place in a “public forum, not behind closed doors” at the Britain’s Ministry of Defence in London.
The fresh cases of alleged abuse and torture carried out between May 2003 and December 2007 comes amid a public inquiry into the death of Basra hotel receptionist Abu Mousa while in British detention that started last year.
The British government also agreed last December to establish an inquiry the deaths of 20 Iraq prisoners, who are alleged to have been murdered after being detained by British troops at Camp Abu Naji in 2004.
Shiner’s colleague Sam Jacobs, said that for far too long the MoD has sought to defend these cases by denying the veracity of allegations and instituting investigations by its own Royal Military Police that have been “found wanting.”
“It is time for the MoD to face up to these 1,000’s of allegations, and order the inquiry sought by these victims. We are dealing here not with complicity in torture, but with torture at the hands of the British state,“ Jacobs said.
2220**345**1424
End News / IRNA / News Code 1229680
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
