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| Britain | |
| Iraq war claims unit to be shut down, says UK defence secretary | |
| 2017-02-11 | |
| The unit investigating claims of abuse by British forces in Iraq is to close down, the government has announced, saying it will also greatly reduce similar inquiries connected to Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. The Iraq historic allegations team (Ihat) will close as early as this summer, the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said on Friday. Any remaining investigations – expected to soon fall to about 20 from a peak of 3,000 – will be investigated by the Royal Navy police. They would be expected to complete any final investigations by the summer of 2018, Fallon added. He said the decision was made after the campaigning human rights lawyer Phil Shiner was struck off this month over multiple professional misconduct charges, including dishonesty and lack of integrity. Shiner had led legal claims against British troops for their treatment of Iraqi detainees after the 2003 invasion. His company, Public Interest Lawyers (Pil), was involved in passing on almost two-thirds of the 3,392 allegations received by Ihat.
However, other allegations turned out to be untrue. In 2014 the long-running al-Sweady inquiry rejected claims that British soldiers murdered insurgents and mutilated their bodies. Shiner later admitted paying an Iraqi middleman to find claimants, in breach of professional standards. His downfall was “the beginning of the end for Ihat”, said Fallon. “This will be a relief for our soldiers who have had allegations hanging over them for too long. Now we are taking action to stop such abuse of our legal system from happening again.” As part of this process, the Royal Military police is to discontinue about 90% of 675 allegations of abuse from Afghanistan, a Ministry of Defence statement said. For historical investigations in Northern Ireland, the government will ensure “veterans and former police officers are not dragged through the courts in disproportionate numbers compared with terrorists”, the statement added. General Sir Nicholas Carter, chief of the general staff, said credible abuse claims should be investigated. “However, a significant number of claims made against our soldiers have not been credible,” he added. But Amnesty International said the failings of Shiner and his firm should not mean all abuse claims were dropped. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Iraq historic allegations team (Asshat) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-02-11 12:49 |