\n Investigations into claims of abuse by British troops in Iraq have closed without a single prosecution being brought, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Allegations against British soldiers who served in the conflict -- and elsewhere around the world -- have dogged the government and military.\n<\/p>\n
\n But in June last year, an independent investigator looking into claims of war crimes between 2003 and 2009 said all but one of the thousands of complaints had been dropped.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a written statement to parliament, Wallace said 178 allegations had been formally pursued through 55 separate investigations, but no soldiers had been prosecuted.\n<\/p>\n
\n In all, 1,291 allegations were assessed since July 2017 and the body responsible, the Service Police Legacy Investigations (SPLI), had \"officially closed its doors\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The vast majority of the more than 140,000 members of our armed forces who served in Iraq did so honourably,\" Wallace said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The SPLI was set up to replace the Iraq Historic Allegations Team after a lawyer who had submitted a slew of cases was struck off for misconduct and dishonesty.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wallace said some allegations were \"credible\" but others were not, and investigating them all posed a \"significant challenge\", including in collecting evidence.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Not all allegations and claims were spurious, otherwise investigations would not have proceeded beyond initial examination and no claims for compensation would have been paid,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It is sadly clear, from all the investigations the UK conducted, that some shocking and shameful incidents did happen in Iraq.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We recognise that there were four convictions of UK military personnel for offences in Iraq, including offences of assault and inhuman treatment.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The government's position is clear -- we deplore and condemn all such incidents.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n In February 2005, three soldiers were jailed for between 20 weeks and two years by a court martial for abusing Iraqi civilians at a camp near Basra in southern Iraq in 2003.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2007, a soldier was jailed for a year in connection with the death of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, who was beaten while held in custody by British troops in 2003.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Ministry of Defence has paid out a total of more than \u00a320 million ($28 million, 24 million euros) in compensation settlements for abuse claims from Iraqi nationals.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wallace said: \"I apologise unreservedly to all those who suffered treatment at the hands of UK forces, which was unacceptable.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Investigations into claims of abuse by British troops in Iraq have closed without a single prosecution being brought, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Tuesday. Allegations against British soldiers who served in the conflict -- and elsewhere around the world -- have dogged the government and military. But in June last year, an independent investigator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-83449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n