British soldiers could face prosecution at the Hague after the International Criminal Court said there was a ‘reasonable basis’ to believe they committed war crimes in Iraq.
The startling threat of a renewed investigation was buried in a 74-page report on preliminary inquiries as the ICC’s member states gather in New York for its annual nine-day meeting.
The new threat comes despite another probe into abuse claims being discredited. A group of UK lawyers who promoted allegations were found guilty of misconduct and senior lawyer Phil Shiner was struck off.
The Iraq Historical Allegations Team was shut down earlier this year after an inquiry found it took up 3,500 allegations with little credible evidence.
The Government said its own investigations into the small number of remaining cases would ‘preclude’ any need for an international case.
British soldiers could face prosecution at the Hague after the International Criminal Court. Pictured are British soldiers patrol in the southern city of Basra in 2007
In 2014, The Hague-based prosecutor reopened an initial probe into war crimes allegations relating to prisoner abuse.
In the new report, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said: ‘Following a thorough factual and legal assessment of the information available… there is reasonable basis to believe that members of the UK armed forces committed war crimes, within the jurisdiction of the Court, against persons in their custody.’
Ms Bensouda’s office said individual statements received from the discredited lawyers ‘could be considered credible enough if substantiated with supporting material’ such as detention records, medical certificates and photographs.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there was a ‘reasonable basis’ to believe UK soldiers committed war crimes in Iraq
Her office is now considering ‘complementarity and gravity’ before evaluating further steps.
‘The prosecutor must be satisfied as to admissibility on both aspects before proceeding,’ the report said.
Bensouda will then decide whether to ask ICC judges permission to launch a full-blown investigation.
Set up in 2002, the Hague-based ICC is an independent court of last resort, only to intervene and prosecute those committing the world’s worst crimes if a member country is unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
The original investigation was launched after human rights groups and lawyers alleged that at least 1,071 Iraqi detainees were tortured and ill-treated between March 2003 to December 2008.
The same group also alleged that British personnel committed 52 unlawful killings of people in their custody over the same period.
The investigations were discredited after a group of lawyers who formed part of the those making the allegations were later found guilty on misconduct charges resulting from a public inquiry. The lawyers’ lead counsellor was struck off.
The world war crimes court’s previous chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in 2006 said he would not open a full probe in Iraq because he did not have enough evidence.
Earlier this year Britain dismissed hundreds of allegations of misconduct by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A UK government spokesman said: ‘We have a legal responsibility to investigate credible allegations of wrongdoing by UK forces, and that is what we are already doing as part of service police legacy investigations, which is reviewing the relatively small number of remaining cases after the closure of IHAT, and through Operation Northmoor.
‘We are confident that our existing efforts to investigate allegations preclude the need for any investigation by the ICC.’