BRITAIN is facing an examination by the International Criminal Court over allegations that UK forces in Iraq were responsible for the "systematic abuse" of detainees.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she was staging a "preliminary examination" - the first step towards a formal inquiry - after receiving a dossier from a British law firm representing a number of detainees.
The Government indicated that it would co-operate with the inquiry by the court in The Hague - set up to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity - while insisting it "completely rejects" the allegations.
Officials expressed confidence that the prosecutor would not move to a full investigation as UK authorities were conducting their own inquiries but they acknowledged that the case could hang over the country for years as the prosecutor's office satisfied itself the matter was being dealt with properly.
A preliminary examination was concluded in 2006, but the Public Interest Lawyers and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights submitted fresh information this year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article