The Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) is a unit set up by the British government in March 2010 to investigate allegations of abuse and torture by British soldiers in Iraq. Much of these have focused on three interrogation sites near
Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
operated by the Joint Forward Interrogation Team (JFIT) between March 2003 and December 2008. The inquiry was established in November 2010
after 146 Iraqi men said they had been tortured.
The unit is led by retired senior civilian police detective, Mark Warwick, and is made up of Royal Navy Police officers and ex-civilian police detectives
and will soon be up to its full complement of 145 staff. In January 2013
G4S
G4S is a British Multinational corporation, multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a ran ...
subsidiary G4S Policing Solutions lost its contract to provide 40 former police officers for the inquiry, and was replaced by Police Skills, a subsidiary of Red Snapper Group, who will provide 100 former detectives.
In a
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
ruled in November 2011 that the involvement of the General Police Duties branch of the
Royal Military Police
The Royal Military Police (RMP) is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of army service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK and while service personnel are deployed overseas on operation ...
(RMP) "substantially compromised" the inquiry because members of the unit had participated in detentions in Iraq. The armed forces minister,
Nick Harvey
Sir Nicholas Barton Harvey (born 3 August 1961) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the member of parliament (MP) for North Devon from 1992 to 2015 and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 2010 to 2012.
Early life an ...
, responded by announcing in March 2012 that the RMP staff would be reassigned and replaced by
Royal Navy Police
The Royal Navy Police (RNP) is the service police branch of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Members of the RNP enforce service law and discipline.
The Royal Navy Police was known as the Royal Navy Regulating Branch until 2007, when the servic ...
personnel by 1 April 2012.
Lawyers representing people alleging that they have been tortured applied for another judicial review in May 2012 to examine the claim that the Royal Navy Police are not sufficiently independent since they also took part in interrogations, and that abuses were so systemic and widespread that only a public inquiry will satisfy the UK's human rights obligations.
The case started on 29 January 2013 and a judgement was handed down by Mr Justice Silber on 24 May 2013. In this judgement it was stated that IHAT has now been structured in such a way that it can independently carry out its investigative and prosecutorial functions. It also ruled that the decision of the Secretary of State to refuse to order an overarching public enquiry could not be called into question and said more should be done to address wider systemic issues. A possible solution—coronial-type inquests once criminal proceedings are complete in a particular case, or once it is evident that particular allegations will not lead to a criminal prosecution—was suggested for consideration by the Secretary of State.
In 2016 Martin Jerrold, managing director of the Red Snapper Group (RSG) was called as a witness to an oral evidence session by a parliament select committee. A subsequent ''Daily Telegraph'' article highlighted the profits made by the company which has contracts worth £4.8 million a year and its apparent ineffectiveness in that over its six years of existence it has yet to produce a single successful prosecution. Its 127 staff can be paid through limited companies potentially reducing tax. RSG confirmed all of its workers were inside IR35 and therefore made the correct levels of income tax and National Insurance returns. Furthermore Martin Jerrold provided evidence in the form of the engagement contract with the MOD which clearly set out RSG was contracted to provide agency workers. These workers worked under the direction, supervision and control of nominated MOD staff. RSG did not provide an operational service feature. They were for all intents and purposes the recruitment, training and HR function of the team.
In 2017, Defence Secretary
Michael Fallon
Sir Michael Cathel Fallon (born 14 May 1952) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 2014 to 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sevenoaks from 1997 to 2019, h ...
announced that the investigations would be shut down within months after MPs called it an "unmitigated failure." According to the Defence Committee report, IHAT had taken up over 3,500 allegations of abuse despite most not having any credible evidence. The report found failings in the conduct of investigations and concluded that those being investigated had suffered unacceptable stress, had their lives put on hold and careers damaged.
''Close IHAT this year and immediately dismiss remaining weak cases''
at parliament.uk. Retrieved 10 Feb 2017.
References
External links
Official site
Completed cases by the IHAT
* {{cite web, url =https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/07/british-troops-war-crimes-iraq-historic-allegations-team, title=Why we may never know if British troops committed war crimes in Iraq, work=The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, date=7 June 2018, first1=Samira, last1=Shackle, accessdate=5 March 2022
2000s in Iraq
Human rights in Iraq
Iraq–United Kingdom relations
Iraq War
Iraq War casualties
Military history of Iraq
Military of the United Kingdom
Military prisoner abuse scandals
Torture in Iraq
Torture in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom intelligence community
War crimes in Iraq
Violence against men in Asia