First British Iraq torture trial underway

The court martial of Gary Bartlam, the British Army soldier accused of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, began in a military court in Bergen, Germany, on Monday this week. However, the Ministry of Defence ordered that the hearing be held in secret, a move which led a number of British newspapers to consider legal action to overturn the decision.

The abuse of detainees originally came to light in June 2002, when Kelly Tilford, an assistant in a photo processing shop in Tamworth, Staffordshire, was handed a film for development by 18-year-old Gary Bartlam, a private in the First Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

When the film was processed, it revealed a number of images, believed to be taken at the Umm Qasr detention centre in Basra, showing the sadistic, and often sexual, torture of prisoners. According to both Tilford and, indeed, the British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, prisoners were seen partially stripped hanging from a rope attached to a forklift truck, whilst others were forced to simulate sexual acts on both British soldiers and one another. Other photographs showed prisoners, stripped naked and prostrate on the ground.

On seeing the photographs, Tilford contacted the police, and Bartlam, along with three other soldiers, was arrested by the civilian police. All were then handed over to the army and the MoD announced an 'inquiry' into the incident, insisting, despite evidence of widespread abuses, that the incident was an isolated one.

Bartlam's court martial is expected to be concluded this week and the court martials of the remaining three soldiers charged with the abuse of prisoners; Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, are to start at Osnabruck, also in Germany, later this week.