Lawyer brings war crimes claim against British military

A lawyer claiming to represent a nephew of Saddam Hussein has said he has filed a suit at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes by British military leaders in Iraq.

Jacques Verges, in a 15-page filing to the court yesterday, called on prosecutors to open an investigation into alleged crimes committed by the US-led coalition in Iraq.

In the filing, Mr Verges cited reports of abuse from Amnesty International, the International Committee for the Red Cross and US Major General Antonio Taguba, who first investigated prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

“Nobody doubts … the reality of torture and systematic abuses of the dignity of Iraqi prisoners – followed possibly by murder – as much by the troops of the United States as those of Britain,” Mr Verges wrote.

Mr Verges said he represents Ali Barzane al-Takriti, a nephew of Saddam, and Zyad Aziz, a son of former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz. The lawyer has previously claimed to represent Saddam himself.

The suit did not identify specific military leaders alleged to be responsible for torture, leaving it to the court to identify those who “ordered, solicited or encouraged the commission of these crimes”.

The suit only targets British officials because the US has not ratified the 1998 treaty establishing the Netherlands-based court.

The court has indicated that it does not have jurisdiction over events that occurred in Iraq, which also never ratified its founding treaty.

The Government said yesterday that newspaper pictures allegedly showing British soldiers threatening and urinating on an Iraqi prisoner were not taken in Iraq. However, armed forces minister Adam Ingram stopped short of calling the images fake.

British military officials said an investigation into the allegations of torture would continue.

Mr Verges has previously defended Klaus Barbie, a Nazi Gestapo chief in France in the Second World War.

He has said he believes the US violated the Geneva Conventions on several counts in its detention of Saddam.