A 180-page report from the International Criminal Court says hundreds of Iraqi detainees were abused by British soldiers between 2003 and 2009. However, it will not take action against the UK, despite the evidence.
The ICC told the BBC: "It is without dispute there is evidence war crimes were committed." Its report said there was a reasonable basis to conclude that at least seven Iraqis were illegally killed while in British custody between April and September 2003. The ICC report refers to evidence of a pattern of war crimes carried out across a number of years by soldiers from several British regiments. Some detainees were raped or subjected to sexual violence. Others were beaten so badly they died from their injuries. The Iraqi individuals, many of them civilians, were unarmed and in British custody at the time.
The ICC says it is "disingenuous to describe the entire body of claims, involving hundreds of claimants, as baseless or spurious".
A BBC Panorama investigation last year revealed that British detectives had also found credible evidence of war crimes committed in Iraq. But the programme discovered that despite this, not one of the cases was taken forward by the army's prosecution service. The ICC said that on the whole the information it received was consistent with the reports in the programme.
Its report concluded that investigations by the Royal Military Police had been "inadequate" and were "marred by a lack of independence and impartiality". Nevertheless, it could not make a determination as to whether the UK had acted to shield soldiers from prosecution.
The ICC prosecutor says: "The fact the allegations investigated by the UK did not result in prosecutions does not mean that these claims were vexatious."
The UK government is currently seeking to introduce a controversial new law, the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which will make it harder to prosecute British soldiers.
After scrutinising the proposed legislation, Parliament's Joint Human Rights Committee has said, "The government is effectively using the existence of inadequate investigations as a reason to legislate to bring in further barriers to bringing prosecutions or to providing justice for victims".
Court finds UK war crimes but will not take action - BBC News
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