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The British government and army are accused of covering war crimes against civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. A joint investigation by the Sunday Times and Panorama, the BBC's flagship investigative program, has documented former military detectives.
With our correspondent in London, Muriel Delcroix
Among the denounced abuses, the Sunday Times and Panorama record in particular the death of an Iraqi policeman shot dead by a British soldier in 2003, torture and violence against prisoners in Basra the same year, as well as the murders of three children and of a young man in Afghanistan in 2012 by a SAS soldier, British Special Forces.
The two media interviewed a dozen former detectives charged with investigating at the time by the army about possible human rights violations. Their testimonies reveal that they had found numerous proofs of war crimes covered by the military command, but that they were never able to complete their work.
The Conservative government has brutally put an end to hundreds of investigations in February 2017, a few months before Theresa May triggered early elections in June.
An investigator mentions the " increasing pressure from the Ministry of Defense to close the files as quickly as possible ", while another states that " the ministry had no intention of prosecuting any soldier unless he was absolutely obliged to do so. ".
The Ministry of Defense has denied these accusations. But the Sunday Times warns that these revelations could lead to the opening of an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that must intervene when countries leave unpunished violations by their army of the Geneva Convention .
► See also: United Kingdom: photos of Afghanistan taint his majesty's army