Tony Blair pressured officials to ensure that British soldiers accused of beating an Iraqi man to death would not be tried in civil courts, newly released files show. In July 2005, a senior aide wrote to the prime minister that the attorney general had met army prosecutors to discuss the case against soldiers alleged to have beaten Baha Mousa to death. The aide noted it was likely the case would proceed to a court martial, but the attorney general could direct it to a civil court. Blair wrote on the note: 'It must not!'
Two years later, Corporal Donald Payne was court-martialed and became the first British soldier convicted of a war crime for his role in Mousa's death. Payne admitted inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians, a war crime under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. He was jailed for a year and dismissed from the army.
The files, released to the National Archives, show Blair's eagerness to avoid civilian or International Criminal Court trials for soldiers. He wrote that the ICC and Crown Prosecution Service must not be involved, calling the Ministry of Defence's handling 'woeful'. The ICC abandoned a long-running inquiry into British troops' alleged war crimes in Iraq in 2020.
