Thirty British soldiers who were falsely accused of war crimes in Iraq are suing the Ministry of Defence for £20million.
In a landmark legal case to be launched this month, they claim defence chiefs failed to uphold a duty of care.
They say the MoD facilitated a legal witch-hunt which ruined careers and led to broken marriages and emotional disorders.
It comes after the MoD paid Iraqi legal agent Abu Jamal £40,000 a year to help bring claims by families of suspected insurgents killed by UK troops.
Innocent soldiers were then hounded by the Iraq Historical Allegations Team based on bogus statements provided by the agent.
Overseas Operations Bill completes passage in Parliament
The Government has delivered the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act to reduce the uncertainty faced by our service personnel and veterans around historical allegations during overseas operations.
From:
29 April 2021
The legislation, which has gained Royal Assent in Parliament, provides stronger legal protections for service personnel and veterans facing the threat of repeated investigations and potential prosecution. The Act delivers on the Government’s manifesto commitment to tackle vexatious claims and end the cycle of re-investigations against our Armed Forces.
Measures have been introduced in the Act in two parts – Part 1, which deals with criminal allegations and Part 2, which deals with civil claims.
MoD let me down over Iraqi death inquiry
Major Robert Campbell was exonerated by a former Court of Appeal judge after a three-year inquiry into the death of a man in Iraq
Major Robert Campbell served in Iraq in 2003
Credit: David Rose /The Telegraph
A decorated Army major has accused Ministry of Defence officials of abandoning him after being wrongly accused of war crimes. Major Robert Campbell said Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, had gone ‘weak-kneed’ in refusing to raise a protest with the International Criminal Court.
Major Campbell was exonerated in the summer by a former Court of Appeal judge after a three-year inquiry into the death of a young man who drowned in an Iraq waterway in 2003.
Iraq Fatality Investigations
From: Contents
The Iraq Fatality Investigations (
IFI) is a form of judicial inquiry tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding Iraqi deaths involving British forces on a case by case basis. It is chaired by the Inspector, a retired judge.
In January 2014, Sir George Newman was appointed to conduct such fatality investigations as the Ministry of Defence assigned to him from time to time with his consent. Sir George’s appointment followed the High Court’s ruling that a publicly accountable investigation into the specific and wider circumstances of death, with participation from the families of the deceased, was in certain cases required under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The
The case of Phil Shiner
The government often cites the case of Phil Shiner, the British lawyer who successfully exposed the role of British soldiers in the torture and murder of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi man who died in British custody in Basra in 2003.
Shiner was struck off by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2017 after being found guilty of professional misconduct charges including paying an Iraqi middleman to find claimants to make allegations against British soldiers.
Shiner had submitted thousands of claims against the British army so this was the opportunity the government - having previously denounced law firms involved in litigation