Iraq/UK: British soldiers face war crimes charges
01 May 2005
In July the Attorney General announced further charges against British soldiers for war crimes in Iraq. In all eleven soldiers have been charged in connection with two cases in which detainees, Baha Mousa and Ahmed Kareem, died. All of the soldiers will face a court martial. At the end of May two of the soldiers found guilty of physically and sexually abusing Iraqi prisoners as part of Operation Ali Baba at Camp Bread Basket in Basra had their sentences reduced (see
Statewatch Vol. 15 no 1). The Army Reviewing Authority felt that it was unreasonable to expect them to comment on their decision. The Ministry of Defence has emphasised that British soldiers will not appear before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Seven soldiers have been charged over the beating to death of hotel worker Baha Mousa in Basra on 15 September 2003 after he had been detained in the custody of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment for three days with seven other prisoners. Colonel Jorge Mendonca, who commanded the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR) is the most senior British soldier to face court martial over Iraq, but the media has widely reported the claims of the Regiment's Commanding Officer and other ex-officers that he is being "scapegoated". He is charged with negligence for failing to ensure that Mousa was treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
Corporal Donald Payne was charged with the inhumane treatment and manslaughter of Mousa and with attempting to pervert the course of justice; he also faces charges of inhumane treatment relating to eight other Iraqis. Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft and Private Darren Fallon are charged with the inhuman treatment of prisoners; Sergeant Kelvin Stacey faces a charge of actual bodily harm. Two members of the QLR Intelligence Corps, Warrant Officer Mark Davies and Major Michael Peebles are charged with negligently performing their duties.
In the second case the Army Prosecuting Authority directed that four servicemen should stand trial for the manslaughter of civilian Ahmed Jabbar Kareem who was allegedly assaulted before being forced into the Shat al-Basra river and drowned on 8 May 2003. Ahmed could not swim. The four soldiers are Sargeant Carl Selman of the Scots Guards, Guardsmen Martin McGing and Joseph McCleary and Lance Corporal James Cooke all of the Irish Guards.
At the end of May, two of the British soldiers found guilty of abusing Iraqi prisoners at an Osnabrook court martial last February had their sentences reduced by the Army Reviewing Authority (ARA). L/Cpl Mark Cooley had his sentence reduced from 2 years imprisonment to 18 months and Fusilier Gary Bartram had his cut from 18 to 12 months; Bartram was removed from the Young Offenders Institution where he was serving his sentence to the military correctional training centre at Colchester.
At the end of June, Bartram won a second challenge to the length of his custodial sentence, leaving him to walk free from the Colchester training centre. Both of the men appeared in photographs showing them orchestrating physical and sexual assaults on the Iraqi prisoners as part of Operation Ali Baba in May 2003 at Camp Bread Basket in Basra, (see
Statewatch Vol 15 no. 1). The Reviewing Authority decided not to change the sentence of a third soldier, L/Cpl Daniel Kenyon, who was found guilty of failing to report abuse. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence refused to comment on the reasons for making the reductions, but explained that "the Army Reviewing Authority will have looked at the evidence presented before coming to this decision."
BBC News 1.6.05, Times 29.6.05, 20-21.7.05