Blair pressured officials over case of UK soldiers accused of beating Iraqi man to death, files show | National Archives
Newly released files show Tony Blair pressured authorities to ensure British soldiers accused of beating an Iraqi man to death while in custody were not tried in civil courts.
A senior aide wrote a letter to the prime minister in July 2005 saying that the attorney general had met with army prosecutors that afternoon to discuss the case against the soldiers who allegedly beat Baha Musa to death.
Antony Phillipson, then private secretary for foreign affairs to the prime minister, wrote that the case was likely to be referred to a court-martial, adding: “Although if the AG thought the case would be better dealt with in a civil court he could direct accordingly.”
“It shouldn’t be!” Blair wrote the following above this paragraph in the files submitted to the Ministry of Justice: National Archives at Kew, West London.
Two years later, in September 2003, a corporal who brutally mistreated Musa and other civilians in a detention center in Basra was court-martialed and became the first British soldier to be convicted of a war crime.
Corporal Donald Payne, who was sentenced to a year in prison and discharged from the army, punched and kicked civilians while they were headscarved and handcuffed, and organized what he called a “chorus” of taking turns hitting the detainees to create “music” for their moans or screams. Payne admitted to inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians; this is a war crime under the international criminal court (ICC) Act 2001.
The newly released files appear to show Blair’s willingness to ensure that British soldiers facing allegations of impropriety in Iraq are not tried in civilian courts or by the ICC.
Phillipson recommended that Blair, the Ministry of Defense and the attorney general submit notes on proposed changes to the legislation they were then making and provide an assessment of how these changes would be introduced so that the government would not be accused of making it impossible for soldiers to operate in a war zone.
Blair wrote: “In fact, we need to be in a position where neither the ICC nor the CPS are involved. This is very important. This has been handled woefully by the Ministry of Defence.”
Earlier, Phillipson said the Foreign Office was waiting for the ICC prosecutor to decide whether to launch a formal investigation into allegations of British military operations in Iraq.
“This is vital,” Blair wrote in the margins.
In 2020, the international criminal court formally annulled a long-running investigation into allegations that British soldiers committed war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.
