Cameron ‘wanted to block’ UK Iraq torture probe

LONDON

Britain’s government has said it will continue to investigate allegations of abuse and torture by its soldiers in Iraq following claims David Cameron wanted to end them.

Newspaper reports over the weekend quoted a U.K. lawmaker as saying Cameron, the former prime minister, wanted to close down the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), a body that is probing the activities of U.K. servicemen during their occupation of the country following the 2003 war.

But Johnny Mercer, a lawmaker from the governing Conservative Party, said Cameron had been prevented from doing so by the U.K. government’s chief legal adviser, Jeremy Wright.

A spokesman for Cameron’s successor Theresa May said she continued to support the work of the IHAT.

Its investigations have included the 2003 case of four soldiers who marched an Iraqi teenager into a river in Basra and watched as he drowned.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense last week apologized for the incident after a judge ruled it was “plain and certain” that the soldiers caused the boy’s death.

He had been detained along with three others on suspicion of looting but drowned because he was unable to swim.

A spokesman for Theresa May, who succeeded Cameron as prime minister in July, said the U.K. government supported IHAT’s work.

The Daily Mail quoted May’s spokesman on Monday as saying: “The issue of the way IHAT conducts its investigations is an issue for IHAT. It is an independent body.”

“Decisions about whether any individuals are prosecuted or not is an issue for the independent Service Prosecutions Authority.”

“That is not something the Government intervenes in or interferes with,” the spokesman added.