Two cleared over prisoners

Two soldiers have been cleared of failing to prevent men under their command abusing Iraqis in Basra.Major Michael Peebles, 35, and Warrant Officer Mark Davies, 37, both of the Intelligence Corps, faced trial at Bulford Camp in Wiltshire, along with five other men on charges related to the alleged ill-treatment of suspected insurgents arrested during the Queen's Lancashire Regiment's tour to Iraq in 2003.Peebles and Davies were both charged with negligently performing the duty of ensuring the Iraqis were not ill-treated by men under his command.Last month, four of the soldiers standing trial, including Colonel Jorge Mendonca, 43, the QLR's former commander, were cleared on the judge's orders due to a lack of evidence against them. One soldier, Corporal Donald Payne, 35, admitted the war crime of treating the Iraqis inhumanely at the start of the six-month trial.The prosecution alleged that Iraqi detainees were beaten, hooded, deprived of sleep and made to hold stress positions over a 36-hour period.A number of the prisoners claimed they were badly injured and one, hotel worker Baha Musa, 26, died.The court heard that the soldiers' rough handling of the detainees was known as "conditioning" and was meant to soften them up ahead of tactical questioning.The Crown said such techniques were banned under the terms of the Geneva Convention and the Laws of Armed Conflict but the court heard how the practice was authorised by officers at the very top in the Gulf.It was the first time this charge, under the International Criminal Court Act 2001, had been brought against a British serviceman and in pleading guilty to it, Payne became the British military's first-ever convicted war criminal. He is awaiting sentence.The trial, which began in September, was said by Army sources to have cost the tax-payer £20 million.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | March 13, 2007

Tags:. .mendonca. .hotel. .baha. .related. .practice