LONDON (AFP)--Two Iraqis accused of murdering British soldiers risk torture and the death penalty if tried in their country, the High Court in London heard Tuesday.
Faisal Al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Mufdhi, 58, are accused of killing Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp at the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Though they are being held by British forces in the southern city of Basra, the U.K. government wants to transfer them to the Iraqi authorities so they can face trial.
Karon Monaghan, the Iraqi pair's lawyer, said there was "a real risk" of a "flagrantly unfair trial before the IHT (the Iraqi Higher Tribunal) and the death penalty thereafter."
She said they could also face "torture and inhuman and degrading treatment" before and after their trials.
That would violate the U.K.'s policy of not allowing any person to face the risk of the death penalty, and would also violate the European Convention on Human Rights and British human rights law.
The U.K. contests the claim that their detention has been unlawful and argues that it has been given high-level assurances that the pair will receive a fair trial and treatment.
The hearing, likely to last three days, is an application for a judicial review at the High Court into the decision to hand the men over to Iraq.
Cullingworth and Allsopp were traveling with a convoy that was ambushed by members of the Fedayeen militia in southern Iraq in March 2003.
Though half the convoy escaped, the two soldiers were taken to Baath Party headquarters in the town of Al Zubayr, and then to an Iraqi intelligence base, where they were shot.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 18, 2008 09:23 ET (14:23 GMT)

Publié le 18 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones