Ben Wallace says he did not 'ignore' SAS war crimes claims

A former Defence Secretary has strenuously denied claims by a political rival that he was told about SAS war crimes in Afghanistan.

Giving evidence at the High Court, Ben Wallace fired back at Johnny Mercer who previously suggested he had shown a 'lack of curiosity' about the allegations.

Mr Wallace also denied the claim made by the former Veterans Minister that he had shared specific details about SAS tactics used to 'cover-up' the apparent shoot-to-kill policy.

Mr Wallace and Mr Mercer were in government together as disturbing evidence emerged five years ago around Extra-Judicial Killings of Taliban suspects in British custody.

As many as 80 Afghans may have been murdered in suspicious circumstances between 2010 and 2013 however not a single UK soldier has ever been charged over the alleged war crimes.

Mr Mercer gave evidence to a High Court inquiry into the claims earlier this year. He said he had approached Mr Wallace about the shootings and passed on evidence.

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He told the court in February that he had been frustrated by Mr Wallace's 'lack of curiosity' about such a serious issues, including the lengths SAS troops went to to cover their tracks.

This allegedly included fabricating reports and placing weapons next to the bodies of deceased Afghans - to suggest they had posed a threat before being killed.

Before entering politics Mr Mercer had served as an Army officer in Afghanistan and had been tipped off about the 'murders' by concerned colleagues.

Mr Mercer had told the High Court he had described the drop weapon practice to Mr Wallace but the former defence secretary disputed this yesterday.

On supposedly 'lacking curiosity', Mr Wallace said: 'I think that is highly inaccurate. My actions are the entire opposite of that.

'Not only did I seek to dig deeper, I established this inquiry. I was absolutely inquisitive and held the department to account.

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'We had to act on the evidence before us. It was also important the reputations of the men and women of our armed forces was not besmirched without evidence.‌

'I owed them a duty not to progress recklessly in a world of perception, rather to progress in a manner of fact and evidence.'

Mr Wallace also dismissed Mr Mercer's suggestion that the Ministry of Defence was 'terrible at investigating itself' – a reference to the failure of a lengthy military police inquiry to establish the facts.

Mr Wallace said: 'I don't know what he means by that. Neither he nor I are actually qualified to make that judgement on a police investigation.

'I cannot speak for Mr Mercer, he would have to tell you to what extent he looked into these things in detail.'

Mr Wallace, who like Mr Mercer is no longer an MP, also told the court how officials advised him to close down the police investigation into the SAS, and warned him against ordering a public inquiry.

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On both counts he dismissed their advice.

The inquiry has previously seen emails written by SAS officers challenging the authenticity of post-mission reports filed by their colleagues.

These officers at UK Special Forces in London simply could not believe the accounts being presented by those serving in Afghanistan.

These reports repeatedly sought to justify the killings of Afghans in custody on the basis they had been hiding weapons, and thereby posed an immediate threat to life.

Mr Wallace was challenged by a barrister over why he had not acted on these concerns. He responded that the remarks were 'not evidential'.

He said: 'People discussed among themselves on email even though they were not there. They belonged to a community that did discuss those things.

'That to my mind is different to a witness, that is second hand or third hand, that is hearsay. It was important the investigation proceeded on evidence rather than rumour.'‌

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In a bid to assure himself of the effectiveness of the Royal Military Police's probe into the war crimes claims, Mr Wallace met a retired former Chief Constable, Sir John Murphy.

Sir John had been appointed as an independent assessor. Mr Wallace told the court Sir John stressed the investigation had found 'no evidence' of Extra Judicial Killings (EJK).

However, as Mr Wallace conceded in testimony yesterday, despite the significance of the matters they discussed, no notes were kept of their meeting in October 2019.

Mr Wallace said: 'It wasn't for me to go back on every point. The police had done their investigation, the prosecuting authority had made its decision not to prosecute.

'So my option was to go to Sir John, who had examined the police investigation. He said there was no evidence of EJKs [Extra-Judicial Killings]. I don't know why [no notes were kept].'