By IRNA,
London : The British government has been found guilty of violating the human rights of two Iraqis accused of murdering two British soldiers in 2003.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg unanimously found Faisal Al Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi were “at real risk of being subjected to an unfair trial followed by execution by hanging” in Iraq, reversing a decision made at the High Court in London.
Al Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi are former officials of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, who have been detained for six years and are currently held in Rusafa jail near Baghdad.
They are accused of killing two British bomb disposal experts Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth within days of the US-led invasion in March 2003 but have consistently maintained their innocence.
Both have waged a long-running legal battle, arguing that the British Army was wrong to hand them over to Iraqi officials for trial in 2008 just ahead of the UK withdrawal.
They claim that the transfer put them at risk of torture and hanging after the Iraqi National Assembly reintroduced the death penalty in 2004. The two were tried by an Iraqi court in 2009 and cleared, but remain in jail pending an appeal by prosecutors.
The Strasbourg court awarded them €40,000 in costs, saying their “mental suffering caused by the fear of execution amounted to inhuman treatment”.
The British government said it was considering the EU court’s verdict.