https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14825889
It will be interesting to see the full report and read it more deeply.
Although the report is strongly critical of the army, in my opinion it doesn't go far enough. Nobody is going to face public prosecution over this appalling murder and Payne remains, to this day, the scapegoat who "took one for the team" and enabled people like Colonel Mendonca to walk away from it.
The army has been cleared of having a "torture regime", when all the allegations pouring out of the occupied countries screams differently.
This enquiry has produced some harsh sounding words, but little else, and the British Army has restricted its response to a mealy-mouthed commitment to "consider carefully any recommendations" which come from the enquiry.
Consider carefully....?
Recommendations....??
Where is the legislation to neuture these thugs in uniform..?
Where are the prosecutions of men like Colonel Mendonca, of whom, there is at least prima facie evidence that he lied under oath. Why is he not being prosecuted for at least perjury, if not for allowing systematic torture to take place under his command (although this enquiry has cleared him of that despite evidence from the original Court Martial of Corporal Donald Payne)..?
At first sight, it seems the only thing this near-whitewash will achieve is that it may enable private prosecutions to proceed. Whether or not that happens is a matter for the families concerned.
Yet another let-off for the professional murderers, thugs and psychopaths of the British Army. They must feel invincible. They're certainly above the law.
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