Iraq murder charges dropped against soldiers

The trial of seven British soldiers charged with the murder of an Iraqi civilian has ended with the charges being thrown out on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The Court Martial held at Colchester in Essex, concluded with a ruling that there was insufficient evidence to warrant the continuation of the trial against the seven co-defendants alleged to have murdered 18-year-old Iraqi taxi driver Nadhem Abdullah in southern Iraq in 2003.

The soldiers, all from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute regiment, had entered pleas of not guilty to charges of murder and violent disorder.

The court had heard prosecution evidence detailing how the teenager had been attacked after his vehicle had been stopped and he was dragged from it.

However, criticising the investigation of the case as "inadequate," Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett directed the military panel to return a not guilty verdict.

He said, after discarding evidence that was "too inherently weak or vague" to be relied on, "a reasonable jury or court martial board properly directed could never reach the high standard of proof required to be sure of the guilt of any defendant."

Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett said that the prosecutors had presented their case properly, but witnesses had admitted lying, that witnesses some distance from the attack could not have seen what they claimed to have seen, and that witnesses were seeking "blood money" from the British army.

Defence lawyers for the soldiers said that there had never been a case for the defendants to answer.

The military trial is thought to have cost £10 million.

(SP/KMcA)