{"id":669182,"date":"2026-01-02T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669182\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:58:11","slug":"did-tony-blair-influence-trial-of-uk-soldiers-accused-of-killing-iraqi-man-courts-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669182\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Tony Blair influence trial of UK soldiers accused of killing Iraqi man? | Courts News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom\u2019s role in the Iraq war<\/a> has come under the spotlight once again, as newly released UK government files appear to suggest that former Prime Minister Tony Blair pressured officials to ensure British soldiers accused of mistreating Iraqi civilians during the war would not be tried in civil courts.<\/p>\n

Documents<\/a> released on Tuesday to the National Archives in Kew, west London, reveal that in 2005, Blair said it was \u201cessential\u201d that courts like the International Criminal Court (ICC) did not investigate UK actions in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The decision to join the war in Iraq<\/a>, launched by the United States with the UK in full support, in March 2003, has become one of the UK\u2019s most widely investigated and criticised foreign policy decisions. The Iraq war continued until December 2011. During that time, more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians, 179 British soldiers<\/a> and more than 4,000 US soldiers were killed.<\/p>\n

In 2020, the ICC ended its own inquiries into British war crimes in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know about the role Blair played in keeping UK war crimes out of the public eye.<\/p>\n

\"BlairUnited Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair addresses troops in Basra, Iraq, in 2003 [Stefan Rousseau\/PA Images via Getty Images]What do newly released documents show?<\/p>\n

On December 30, the UK Cabinet Office released more than 600 documents to the National Archives at Kew. According to the UK\u2019s Public Records Act 1958, the government is required to release records of historical value to the National Archives after 20 years.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> the National Archives website, most of the newly added documents relate to the policies implemented by the Blair government between 2004 and 2005, from domestic decisions to ensure the UK would not break up by delegating power to Wales and Scotland, to foreign policy decisions on Iraq and other countries.<\/p>\n

According to UK media reports, the declassified files record that Blair told Antony Phillipson, his private secretary for foreign affairs at the time, that it was \u201cessential\u201d that civil courts did not prosecute British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi civilians in their custody during the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have, in effect, to be in a position where the ICC is not involved and neither is CPS (UK Crown Prosecution Service),\u201d he said in a written memo. \u201cThat is essential.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to UK media reports, Blair\u2019s comments followed a written memo Phillipson sent him in July 2005 about a meeting between the country\u2019s attorney general at the time and two former UK military chiefs. He wrote that they had discussed the case of British soldiers who were accused of beating an Iraqi hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa<\/a>, to death.<\/p>\n

Mousa, who was killed in September 2003 in Basra, Iraq, had been in the custody of UK troops.<\/p>\n

According to records among the newly declassified documents, Phillipson told Blair that the case would be one which would end with a court martial. But he added that \u201cif the Attorney General felt that the case was better dealt with in a civil court, he could direct accordingly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must not,\u201d Blair stressed.<\/p>\n

Christopher Featherstone, associate lecturer at the Department of Politics, University of York, said: \u201cBlair didn\u2019t want prosecution through international law, and wanted military justice \u2013 he saw this as less punitive in the punishments \u2013 and he didn\u2019t want the perception that the military couldn\u2019t operate effectively in war zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featherstone told Al Jazeera that the Iraq war has become synonymous in UK politics with Blair and his legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Blair] was convinced that he could persuade the British public of the rightness of the Iraq war, both morally and strategically. However, this became more and more difficult to achieve. As such, he was very concerned about potential prosecution for UK soldiers as this would only amplify opposition to the war, at home and abroad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"BlairProtesters against the war in Iraq gather outside the Houses of Parliament in London, UK, in January 2003 [File: Michael Stephens\/PA Images via Getty Images]What was the UK\u2019s role in the Iraq war?<\/p>\n

The Blair government justified the UK\u2019s decision to support the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 using now-debunked claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The UK said its aim was to eliminate these and to liberate the people of Iraq from the rule of then-President Saddam Hussein.<\/p>\n

In 2003, the US sent more than 100,000 soldiers, the UK sent about 46,000, Australia sent 2,000, and Poland sent about 194 special forces members.<\/p>\n

But there was a great deal of public debate in the UK about the legality of going to war in Iraq on the basis of what was suspected to be flawed evidence about weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n

Featherstone, who wrote the book The Road to War in Iraq: Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis, said Blair was \u201cfrustrated\u201d by worries from officials about the legality of going to war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the interviews I carried out for my book research, senior military and civil servants were worried about the legality and asked for reassurance from the attorney general. However, Blair was frustrated at all the discussion of the legality of the invasion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlair saw the UK role as showing the international support for the US war on terror, and saw his personal role as building the case for the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media in July 2016 after the release of the Chilcot report<\/a> \u2013 a British public inquiry into the UK\u2019s role in the Iraq war \u2013 Blair said joining the invasion had been \u201cthe hardest decision\u201d he had ever taken during his tenure as prime minister.<\/p>\n

The Chilcot report<\/a> concluded that there had been no \u201cimminent threat\u201d from Saddam Hussein and said the intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was \u201cnot justified\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blair acknowledged that the intelligence was wrong but said invading Iraq was nevertheless the \u201cright decision\u201d at the time, as Saddam Hussein was a \u201cthreat to world peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world was and is, in my judgement, a better place without Saddam Hussein,\u201d Blair told journalists in reply to the findings of the Chilcot report.<\/p>\n

However, he apologised to families who were bereaved during the war and said that \u201cno words can properly convey the grief and sorrow of those who lost ones they loved in Iraq \u2013 whether our armed forces, the armed forces of other nations or Iraqis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Did UK soldiers abuse Iraqis during the war?<\/p>\n

There is a large amount of evidence showing that they did.<\/p>\n

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), have documented cases of UK soldiers abusing hundreds of Iraqi civilians in their custody during the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir testimonies [Iraqi civilians] show a pattern of violent beatings, sleep and sensory deprivation, \u2018stress positions\u2019, deprivation of food and water, sexual and religious humiliation, and, in some cases, sexual abuse,\u201d the ECCHR said<\/a> in a report in 2020.<\/p>\n

In 2005, three UK soldiers were tried by court martial at a British military base in northern Germany, where photographs showing evidence of the abuses they engaged in had been produced. The soldiers denied the charges but were found guilty of abusing Iraqi civilians during the war and were dismissed<\/a>\u00a0from the army.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Corporal Donald Payne became the first British soldier to be sentenced. He went to prison for a year after being court-martialled by the army for mistreating Iraqi prisoners during the war.<\/p>\n

Payne was involved in the death of the Iraqi civilian and hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, who died in 2003 after enduring 93 beatings.<\/p>\n

Has the ICC intervened?<\/p>\n

In 2005, the ICC opened<\/a> an inquiry into the UK\u2019s role in the Iraq war, but closed it in February 2006 when ICC judges agreed that the case did not fall into the top court\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

However, the inquiry was reopened in May 2014 by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda after rights groups submitted evidence of UK soldiers\u2019 systematic abuse, including murder and torture, of Iraqi civilians during the war.<\/p>\n

But in December 2020, Bensouda abandoned the inquiry, saying that while there was \u201creasonable basis to believe\u201d that \u201cmembers of the British armed forces committed the war crimes of wilful killing, torture, inhuman\/cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape and\/or other forms of sexual violence\u201d, the UK government had not tried to block investigations into the case.<\/p>\n

In a 184-page report, Bensouda\u2019s office said<\/a> in December 2020: \u201cIf shielding had been made out, an investigation by my Office would have been warranted. Following a detailed inquiry, and despite the concerns expressed in its report, the office [of the prosecutor] could not substantiate allegations that the UK investigative and prosecutorial bodies had engaged in shielding [ie, blocking inquiries], based on a careful scrutiny of the information before it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving exhausted reasonable lines of enquiry arising from the information available, I therefore determined that the only professionally appropriate decision at this stage is to close the preliminary examination and to inform the senders of communications. My decision is without prejudice to a reconsideration based on new facts or evidence,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s decision has been condemned by rights groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK government has repeatedly shown precious little interest in investigating and prosecuting atrocities committed abroad by British troops,\u201d Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch said in a statement in December 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecutor\u2019s decision to close her UK inquiry will doubtless fuel perceptions of an ugly double standard in justice, with one approach for powerful states and quite another for those with less clout,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

What did Blair say about the ICC?<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s declassified documents have revealed that Blair was confident the ICC would not prosecute UK soldiers.<\/p>\n

According to the documents, in June 2002, a month before the ICC statute entered into force and about a year before the UK joined the Iraq war, Blair had told John Howard, the Australian prime minister at the time, that countries like the UK had no reason to fear the ICC.<\/p>\n

The Rome Statue<\/a> of the ICC is the top court\u2019s main treaty which states that the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for serious crimes including crimes against humanity and engaging in committing a genocide.<\/p>\n

Blair wrote to Howard after officials in Australia expressed fears about the ICC\u2019s jurisdiction, as Australia had also joined the US and UK in the Iraq war.<\/p>\n

But Blair reassured Howard in his letter that the top court \u201cacts only in the case of failed states or where judicial processes have broken down\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that responsible democratic states, where the rule of law is respected, have nothing to fear from the ICC,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

According to UK media reports, Blair\u2019s administration had agreed to sign the ICC\u2019s Rome Statute in 1998 after the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office negotiated with the court that \u201cthe court [ICC] may only act when national legal systems are unable or unwilling to do so\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly true that the ICC has historically been accused of being biased in terms of where it has focused its attention and effort in investigating and prosecuting cases,\u201d Featherstone said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there are some reasons for this around resources for investigating, the ability to bring the cases to fruition, and the relative power of those being accused,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Kingdom\u2019s role in the Iraq war has come under the spotlight once again, as newly released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,6178,30,41776,393,299,13641,1234,4884,10470,839,12,1144,33039,712,203868,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-669182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-conflict","12":"tag-courts","13":"tag-crimes-against-humanity","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-explainer","17":"tag-government","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-iraq","20":"tag-middle-east","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-saddam-hussein","24":"tag-scotland","25":"tag-the-iraq-war-20-years-on","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115826098579222288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}