Nearly 300 British personnel who served in Iraq have been contacted by investigators looking into allegations of war crimes, with some of them facing interrogation on their doorsteps, officials have said.
The Iraq historic allegations team (Ihat), the government-established criminal investigation into claims of murder, abuse and torture during the Iraq war, said it has written to veterans a week after it warned that some may face prosecution.
In some cases the letters were hand-delivered and it suggested that investigators had taken the opportunity to “ask a few questions” where possible. In a statement released on Friday, it defended its actions, saying their investigators had carried out “standard police practice”.
About 280 veterans have been sent documents telling them they were involved in an incident under investigation by the Ihat, a spokeswoman for the unit said.
“It is standard police practice to send letters as a means of contacting potential witnesses.
“Sometimes, the letters are delivered by hand and it may be that, if a potential witness is at home, then the investigator will take the opportunity to ask a few questions. Again, this is standard police practice. In this situation there is no obligation to respond to such enquiries – it is very much a matter for the individual,” the spokeswoman said.
The MoD said: “The vast majority of UK service personnel deployed on military operations conduct themselves professionally and in accordance with the law. The MoD takes all allegations of abuse or unlawful killing extremely seriously. That is why we are ensuring that they are investigated to establish the facts.”
Ihat’s workload includes more than 1,500 possible victims, of whom 280 were alleged to have been unlawfully killed. Last week, Mark Warwick, the former police detective in charge of the unit, told the Independent that his team had identified cases where he felt there was “significant evidence to be obtained to put a strong case before the service prosecuting authority to prosecute and charge”.
He said he expected to make progress within the next 12 to 18 months. “Then I think we can say whether [finalising investigations by] 2019 seems realistic,” he added.
On Friday night, the Independent reported dozens of cases in which British service personnel were accused of unlawfully killing Iraqis had already been referred to prosecutors.
Police chiefs and MPs have called the investigation a “despicable witch-hunt”, according to the Daily Mail.
The news comes after the law firm Leigh Day was referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over complaints about its handling of legal claims brought by Iraqi detainees against the MoD. The claims, which crumbled when it emerged that some of the Iraqis were members of the rebel Mahdi army, centred on allegations that detainees had been abused and murdered by British soldiers.
The chairman of the Al-Sweady inquiry, which was set up to look into the claims, called the most serious of them “deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility”.
