January 11, 2005
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By Tony Paterson in Berlin
10 January 2005
Four soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are charged with assault and indecent assault for alleged incidents at a warehouse in Iraq.
Staff at a photographic store in Staffordshire tipped off police after they were disturbed by so-called "trophy snaps" a soldier had asked them to develop.
The 25 pictures are reported to show one soldier standing on an Iraqi prisoner who appears to be lying in a pool of blood. Another allegedly shows a gagged Iraqi hanging from the arms of a fork-lift truck controlled by a grinning British soldier. The prisoner is cut down and shown falling heavily. Others are reported to show a soldier preparing to kick the head of an Iraqi lying on the ground. Others are alleged to show Iraqis being forced to perform sexual acts with each other and on a soldier.
The Attorney General that 75 investigations had been launched into allegations of soldiers' mistreatment of Iraqis. Thirty-six cases involved the deaths of prisoners. They include the cases of Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist who died of injuries after being arrested by soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that of Abd al-Jubba Mousa, 53, a head teacher in Basra who died after he was allegedly beaten with rifle butts by Black Watch soldiers in May 2003.
A Red Cross investigation at the same time showed there had been "systematic abuse" of prisoners and revealed that British soldiers had stamped on the neck of a man who died in their custody.
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