Met Police war crimes unit’s jurisdiction extends to war crimes and crimes against humanity outside UK territory
Skwawkbox was in London yesterday for a conference – organised semi-clandestinely to avoid disruption and attacks by pro-Israel groups – hosted by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and presented by noted human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, to announce a landmark action by anti-genocide lawyers and researchers against UK citizens involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinian civilians as part of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
A team of lawyers in Britain, including well-known barrister Michael Mansfield, and researchers based in The Hague have compiled a detailed report for submission to the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command’s (SO15) War Crimes Team on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the British-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), which are representing Palestinians in Gaza and Britain.
This is the first report of its kind, providing fully researched and compelling evidence of the involvement of British nationals in grave crimes committed in Gaza.
Sourani, himself a prisoner of the occupation regime during the 1970s, spoke passionately about the Gaza genocide and the crimes Israel is perpetrating, telling the audience that the UK government considers Ukrainians ‘good victims’ entitled to resist invasion and occupation and to enjoy self-determination, freedom and dignity – and that the UK has imposed waves of sanctions on Russia, but that Palestinians are considered unworthy of such rights and subject to Israel’s clear genocidal intent:
We were not allowed the same [rights], we thought the west would wake up and realise our situation and support us – we were naïve, this was not the case. Nobody really paid attention, we were pleading…On October 10 2023, [Israeli officials] said there is no distinction between civilians and fighters, [they] are human animals, we will get them all, no water, no food, no fuel…
Genocide is live-streamed, not a question is it happening or not, whole world watching. Is fate of Palestinians to be slaughtered? Do we share values of international law, democracy, human rights
39 hospitals erased, all schools and universities erased. No clinics, no desalination, no sewer system, no roads, 90% of buildings destroyed, no trees…285 journalists, 300 lawyers, 400 intellectuals and academics, poets and writers erased.
I have a question. What’s the problem of Europe with 18,000 Gaza children? Were they evil? What about 14,000 women? Can you imagine in the 21st century that you and your children not only have your homes destroyed and experience living death 24 hours a day, can hardly find even undrinkable water and if you want to eat, you maybe get bread every 2-4 days for your children.
I think this is a big shame – on Israel definitely as the occupying power, proud of its genocide and crimes, there is hard evidence about [genocidal] intent – we managed to find 840 on the record statements from govt leaders, Knesset, ministers. Flagrantly, proudly declaring their intent. Facts are evident everywhere.
British suspects
The report identifies ten British suspects and presents a dossier of evidence of their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli military. It further calls for the commencement of an investigation into those British nationals, with a view to arrest warrants and prosecutions in British courts.
The suspects cannot be named so as not to jeopardise ongoing investigations or prejudice future prosecutions, but the suspects include those at officer level.
Offences and testimony
The report includes a detailed overview of the crimes committed across the Gaza Strip, the involvement of military units, and the criminal liability of the suspects based on their unit affiliations and roles in the armed conflict between 7 October 2023 and 31 May 2024.
The report evidences the involvement of British nationals in:
● Targeted killing of civilians and aid workers, including by sniper fire
● Indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals
● Forced transfer and displacement of civilians
● Coordinated attacks on protected sites, including historic monuments and religious sites
Testimony from witnesses in Gaza recounts “dead bodies scattered next to each other”, with one recalling removing a blanket from the bodies to find “the bodies of my uncle and his son, my nephews, and my brother-in-law along with other displaced people’s bodies”.
Another witness said soldiers “ordered my father, husband and children to strip”. The witness testified:
They were taken one by one into the middle of the glass-strewn living room, where a soldier beat them with an electric cable and a large billiard stick.
A third witness, who was at a medical facility, saw corpses “scattered on the ground, especially in the middle of the hospital courtyard, where many dead bodies were buried in a mass grave”. A bulldozer “ran over a dead body in a horrific and heart-wrenching scene desecrating the dead”, the witness recalled. They also said a bulldozer demolished part of the hospital.
War crimes and crimes against humanity
The report details how each of the crimes attributed to the 10 suspects amounts to a war crime or crime against humanity – both ‘core international crimes’ and some of the gravest crimes under international law. These crimes include murder, torture, pillage, or intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population, humanitarian aid workers, religious and educational buildings and hospitals. The use of weapons not authorised by international conventions, such as chemical weapons or cluster munitions, can also be considered a war crime.
Through international treaties, Britain has an obligation to investigate and prosecute those who have committed core international crimes. Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 (ICCA) states that “it is an offence against the law of England and Wales for a person to commit genocide, a crime against humanity, or a war crime”, even if it takes place outside this jurisdiction.
The Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (GCA) gives effect to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and criminalises “grave breaches” of the treaties. The grave breach regime applies only to conduct that takes place in the context of an international armed conflict. The GCA applies to any person, whatever their nationality, who, in the context of an international armed conflict, whether inside or outside England and Wales, commits, aids, abets, or procures the commission by any other person of a grave breach. The GCA and ICCA apply to British nationals suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report provides substantial evidence for the War Crimes Team to initiate an investigation into the ten named suspects under these provisions.
Next steps
The group’s representatives have met with representatives from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command’s War Crimes Team and have today handed over the report. Under UK and international law, it is incumbent on the War Crimes Team to take on and advance the investigation.
An investigation into the conduct of British nationals is safe, proportionate, feasible, and required. There is evidence linking the conduct of British nationals to crimes, crime sites, Israeli military units, and specific illegal acts.
That investigation will take time but the group hopes and expects that it will lead to a decision to prosecute, along with applications for arrest warrants. Ultimately, if the evidence against the ten suspects is such that there is a reasonable prospect of conviction, as the group believes it is, British nationals must appear before British courts on trial for grave international crimes.
This is illegal, this is inhuman and enough is enough. The government cannot say we didn’t know; we are providing them with all the evidence
Raji Sourani.
While actions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) move at a snail’s pace, the move to use UK law and courts aims to bring some measure of justice and accountability more rapidly to citizens of the UK who have supported or taken part in Israel’s constant crimes and terrorism against the innocents of Gaza – and send a message to the genocidal regime that impunity is not guaranteed or endless.
Skwawkbox was the only UK media to attend the event and, because of the organisational secrecy around the event, was unable to invite readers beforehand to contribute towards the costs of travel. If you would like to help cover the costs, please select one of the options immediately below. Thank you for your support.
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Where are ALL of our politicians, including the one who boasts of his being a “Human Rights” lawyer, when it suits him for political purposes, when he tells us he has personally prosecuted all the terrorists known to man. Is Israel not a terrorist state?
Thanks for your special efforts here, SW. We need to watch this forensically. The rest of the media certainly won’t. They might even actively distract from it.
Even if Met Police Counter Terrorism Command’s (SO15) War Crimes Team investigate/verify the evidence handed to them by PCHR and PILC, Starmer will certainly do his best to obstruct their efforts and try to block subsequent action by the. He’d see it as ‘antisemitic’ not to.
If a muslim left the uk to take aid to syria he lost his citizenship (tox sharif). A 15 year old Muslim girl groomed by security services and she loses her citizenship. I see VERY clearly the hypocrisy. Yet murder and torture muslims in israel and the uk welcomes you.
If this sits right in anyones mind then you are the same as the nazis.
What worries me, I open posts about sheep rustling. All comments blame halal slaughter. Whatever post I open its always muslims fault.
One thing a Muslim does well his his prays many of us have lost the way of giving thanks to ours
I imagine many flights booked to israel today. “Is it me?? Am I on the list” 🤣🤣🤣
“While actions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) move at a snail’s pace”. That may be true, but the process is expedited if a political enemy is in the frame. President Putin was accused of transferring children from Ukraine into Russia, a war crime according to the Geneva conventions. His indictment by the ICC was achieved in very short order. It so happens that those children were taken from a war zone with the consent of their parents, this was all detailed in this Gray zone article.. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/04/13/nato-states-icc-prosecutor-putin/
Article 25 of the Rome Statute……
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf
……details the legal liability of individuals who aid and abet such war crimes, regardless of in what capacity they aided and abetted the war crime:
“Article 25
Individual criminal responsibility
1. The Court shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to this Statute.
2. A person who commits a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court shall be individually responsible and liable for punishment in accordance with this Statute.
3. In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:
(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or
through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally
responsible;
(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs
or is attempted;
(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or
otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including
providing the means for its commission;
(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission
of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. Such
contribution shall be intentional and shall either:
(i) Be made with the aim of furthering the criminal activity or criminal
purpose of the group, where such activity or purpose involves the
commission of a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; or
(ii) Be made in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the
crime;
(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to
commit genocide;
(f) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its
execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because
of circumstances independent of the person’s intentions. However, a person
who abandons the effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevents the
completion of the crime shall not be liable for punishment under this Statute
for the attempt to commit that crime if that person completely and voluntarily
gave up the criminal purpose.
3 bis. In respect of the crime of aggression, the provisions of this article shall apply only to persons in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State.
4. No provision in this Statute relating to individual criminal responsibility shall affect
the responsibility of States under international law.”
Given the active provision of material means for the commission of these war crimes under paragraph 3 sub-paragraphs (c), (d) and (e) by the individual policy decision-making members of at least the last two UK Cabinets there are a whole host of names which need to be forwarded to whatever organised body in the UK is dealing with this.
Not forgetting all those decision-making representatives throughout all the political parties who are organised FOI and the so-called journalist who shill for and excuse these war crimes through their daily acts of omission and commission who are also materially aiding and abetting these war crimes.
The receipts exist. And, as that Owen Jones clip posted earlier today clearly implies, the stain will never wash off the rest of us a society and as individuals if we do not put our own house in order by physically placing every last one of these criminals in our midst, aiding and abetting these war crimes in our name, in front of some form of due process war crimes tribunal via whatever means possible.