UK nationals committed abuses in Iraq after 2003 on a significant scale. The International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) Final Report on the UK and Iraq on December 9 is the latest official report to find that members of UK armed forces subjected Iraqi detainees to abuse, and concludes there is a reasonable basis to believe these were war crimes. But the prosecutor’s decision to close her examination of the UK without proceeding to an investigation on the basis that the UK is willing to genuinely investigate and prosecute these war crimes defies belief.
The Prosecutor Office’s report amounts to one of the clearest findings by any official body of the extent of UK abuses in Iraq.
The ICC refuses to prosecute UK war crimes in Iraq despite “reasonable” evidence
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has abandoned its inquiry into war crimes committed by British troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.
The decision is a green light to the major powers to ignore international criminal and humanitarian law when pursuing their imperialist interests throughout the world.
ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced the decisions even as she admitted there was a “reasonable basis to believe” that British armed forces may have carried out atrocities, including the willful killing of detainees held in custody in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.
Fatou Bensouda (credit: Max Koot Studio - Own work)
Published date: 17 December 2020 13:31 UTC | Last update: 3 months 2 weeks ago
The court could have set a powerful precedent in holding Britain to account. Instead, it has become a laughing stock and few will be able to take it seriously again
A British soldier keeps watch in Basra, southern Iraq, in 2007 (AFP) Court finds UK war crimes but will not take action . That was the extraordinary BBC News headline last week following the International Criminal Court s publication of its detailed investigation into war crimes committed by British troops during the occupation of Iraq.
The ICC s report is based on the findings of a preliminary inquiry to determine both whether there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed and to assess whether the UK has itself investigated and sought to prosecute those accused of involvement.
Workers Revolutionary Party
Hotel worker BAHA MOUSA who had over 90 injuries inflicted on him when he was killed by UK forces in Baghdad
THE INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court has said it will not take action against the UK, despite its finding of evidence British troops committed war crimes in Iraq.
Its 180-page report specifically says that ‘hundreds of Iraqi detainees were abused by British soldiers between 2003 and 2009’. But the ICC could not determine whether the UK had ‘acted to shield soldiers from prosecution’, and its Special Prosecution Authority declined to prosecute.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the ICC’s report ‘vindicates our efforts to pursue justice where allegations have been founded’. Yet the ICC has specifically told the BBC: ‘It is without dispute there is evidence war crimes were committed.’
British troops will not be dragged in front of an international court over claims of killing and torturing Iraqi prisoners after a long-standing probe was closed yesterday.
International Criminal Court (ICC) officials had spent six years carrying out a preliminary investigation into allegations of wrongdoing during the Iraq War.
There were fears that if the UK did not investigate the claims sufficiently, British soldiers would end up facing war crimes trials in the court in The Hague.
But in a major win for ministers, the ICC said it will not open a full-scale investigation because UK authorities had already investigated the allegations.