Retired officers demand new law to protect British soldiers from witch-hunts

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Senior retired members of the Armed Forces have united to call for a 'comprehensive' new law to remove the threat of prosecution hanging over veterans.

The Government's Northern Ireland Troubles Bill aims to establish a Legacy Commission to investigate killings during battles with Republicans and Loyalists as far back as 1969, tied to the promise of a package of protections for veterans.

While theoretically terrorists could also be investigated, the lack of records on their side means that the new system would disproportionately target British veterans.

Labour's former veterans minister Al Carns quit in June after warning the Bill was 'unfit for purpose' and failed veterans.

Brigadier General David Maddan, ex-SAS Commanding Officer Aldwin Wight, former SAS Regimental Sergeant Major George Simm and Dr Robert Parr, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Changing Character of War Centre and ex-member of both 22 SAS and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, are all calling for the Government to scrap the Bill and introduce a new Military Operations Act to govern 'the conduct of military operations at home and overseas'.

Brigadier General Maddan told The Mail on Sunday that 'the threat of endless legal investigations and potential prosecutions has damaged the confidence of the Special Forces to act boldly in situations of extreme risk'.

Labour's former veterans minister Al Carns (pictured last month) quit in June after warning the Bill was 'unfit for purpose' and failed veterans

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He added: 'The prevailing atmosphere of the threat from the lawyer behind is corrosive to military effectiveness.

'Those on operations today... feel unsupported by the Government. The Special Forces are the point of the spear of UK defence capability but the spear is being blunted by a corrupted legal framework.'

Mr Wight said that in the event of 'a second Iranian embassy siege', the officers in command would be reluctant to act without a legal waiver because 'there is actually no framework and that means any terrorist group which wants to use lawfare against us will'.

They are calling for a new law which defines exactly what soldiers can and can't do when fighting overseas or in the UK.

The Northern Ireland Office said there will be a 'substantial package of amendments to bolster protections' for veterans, and 'suggestions that they will be dragged through the courts are simply wrong'.