Detailed hearings into alleged war crimes committed by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan at a public inquiry are likely to be delayed into 2025, prompting a row between investigators and the Ministry of Defence.
A letter, made public on Thursday, from a solicitor to the public inquiry addressed to the MoD complained of unacceptable delays in supplying evidence. The ministry responded by saying it was spending £21m to support of the investigation.
The correspondence highlights that even if the MoD hires extra legal assistants and buys specialist software, it would take until October or November to supply documents, meaning the hearings into the suspicious killings of 80 Afghans would be delayed until March 2025.
“The current situation is completely unacceptable and a most regrettable failure by the MoD to meet its responsibilities,” wrote Piers Doggart, solicitor to the inquiry, describing the number of paralegals allocated to review document disclosure as derisory.
Allegations that members of the SAS killed Afghans in cold blood, some while they slept, between 2010 and 2013 have dominated the initial stages of the judge-led inquiry. But it had been due to examine a catalogue of specific incidents in detail this year, in an attempt to establish whether there had been wrongdoing.
Male Afghans were frequently killed during night raids on compounds in Helmand after they were said to have pulled out a weapon or grenade when they were taken aside by the elite British soldiers. A lawyer for the families has accused the SAS of pursuing a policy of terminating “all fighting-age males”.
A special hearing is due on Friday in which the presiding judge Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave will ask the MoD why it has “failed to meet deadlines for the provision of evidence,” the reason for “inadequate resources” dedicated to supporting the inquiry , and what steps will be taken to speed up disclosure.
A reply from government lawyers argued that the department had made significant commitments to support the inquiry, with an estimated 80 people involved in its response, a figure that is due to rise to 90 when 10 more paralegals join to help with document disclosure.
“Spending on the headcount for the MoD’s response is projected to be over £15m over the course of the inquiry,” and could increase further if more support was required, the Treasury solicitor acting for the MoD wrote.
“This does not include the £6m already spent on funding the inquiry team itself, a figure which will increase significantly over the course of the inquiry,” the solicitor added, taking the total spend on the inquiry to £21m.
The government lawyer apologised to the inquiry that Haddon-Cave had “felt compelled” to raise these concerns and to arrange a hearing to explore them, and said that Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, had made a commitment to ensure the inquiry would continue its work.
Delays had been caused, the solicitor said, by the sheer number of documents sought, the availability of legal resource and the complexities of searching secret and top-secret computer systems at a time when “the need must be clearly identified and proven” to spend significant sums of public money.
