The trial in Germany of British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners was halted yesterday at the request of the defense, a UK government spokesman said.
"The trial has been halted because of the defense application," Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokes-man told reporters.
Photos published this week showed an Iraqi man dangling from a forklift truck, a soldier with his foot raised over a bound Iraqi lying in a puddle of water and appeared to show naked detainees being forced to simulate anal and other sex acts.
The three soldiers face charges that they mistreated Iraqi prisoners at a food warehouse near Basra in May 2003.
The case came to light when a soldier, who photographed the alleged abuse, took a role of film to be developed in his home town in England, and the photo lab contacted the police.
Blair told parliament on Wed-nesday he found the pictures "shocking and appalling."
The case echoes the scandal involving US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, which severely tarnished Washington's image in the Arab world and elsewhere.
"While we express in a unified way our disgust at those pictures, I hope that we do not allow that to tarnish the good name, fully deserved, of our British armed forces," Blair said on Wednesday.
"The very fact that these courts martial have been brought is an indication of how seriously they take them," he said.
"I think and hope that people in Iraq do understand that the very fact that we are taking this action and prosecuting people who ... may have been guilty of offences indicates that we do not tolerate this type of activity in any shape or form at all," he said.
The opposition Conservative leader, Michael Howard, said on Wednesday that the alleged acts were not typical of the British Army, but pressed for assurances that the circumstances would be fully investigated.
"The appalling photographs in today's newspapers bring shame upon our country, but we should recognize that they in no way reflect the true character of Britain's armed forces," Howard said
Also on Wednesday, Ministry of Defense officials said that the Army officer who devised "Operation Ali Baba" -- the plan to round up looters at a British camp in Basra -- would not be disciplined.
Major Dan Taylor, who was in charge of the humanitarian aid base Camp Breadbasket near Basra, told soldiers there to catch the looters who had been stealing food and "work them hard."
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clapham, the main prosecutor at the court martial in Germany, said Taylor's order was unlawful.
The ministry declined to say what action if any has been taken in relation to Taylor, of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel David Paterson, or any other officer.
Senior defense sources would only say that no disciplinary action would be taken.
Meanwhile, a spokesman at Blair's Downing Street office said yesterday that British troops will stay in Iraq for as long as required by the Iraqi authorities, denying a newspaper report that London was urging Washington to give a provisional timetable for a pull-out.
"It is the Iraq government that will determine how long the multinational force will stay in Iraq," the spokesman said.
"There is no timetable," he added. "Troops are not stationed in Iraq to meet a timetable but rather to help Iraq while it decides its own future and builds up its own security capabilities."
Forces are in Iraq at the request of the interim government. There will be no change after the Jan. 30 elections, he added.
The Daily Telegraph, quoting an unnamed government source, said Blair's government was hopeful US President George W. Bush would agree to make a formal announcement on troop withdrawal within two or three months.
Britain believed an "indicative timetable" for a pullout would bolster Iraq's interim government and undermine insurgents, the Telegraph said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image