By KUNA
London : Sending British soldiers out on patrol or into battle with defective equipment could amount to a breach of their human rights, a High Court judge ruled here Friday.
The decision marked a groundbreaking legal defeat for Britains Defence Secretary Des Browne and potentially has important implications for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, commentators said.
The Defence Secretary suffered yet another defeat when the judge rejected his bid to ban coroners from using phrases such as “serious failure”, implying criticism of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its agents, in verdicts on soldiers who have died on active service.
In the same judgment, the judge said that in such cases families should be entitled to legal aid and as full access as possible to military documents put before inquest hearings.
The request for inquest guidelines came in a test case relating to Scottish soldier Private Jason Smith, 32, who died of heatstroke in Iraq.
MoD lawyers had argued that it was “impossible to afford to soldiers who were on active service outside their bases the benefits of the Human Rights Act”.
But the judge ruled that British servicemen and women were entitled to some measure of legal protection “wherever they may be”, possibly right on to the battlefield.