SAS SOUGHT TO ‘COVER UP’ KILLINGS OF UNARMED AFGHANS

Evidence given to the Afghanistan inquiry reveals the army’s special forces unit deleted key data related to the killing of over 50 Afghans. The new findings further shatter the myth that the SAS is a highly professional, law-abiding fighting unit.

RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR

General Gwyn Jenkins concealed evidence of war crimes. (Photo: Royal Navy)

The SAS destroyed information that could provide crucial evidence about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the killing of unarmed Afghans, some, it is alleged, in cold blood. 

The shocking admissions emerged in hearings of the inquiry set up in the wake of claims that SAS soldiers unlawfully killed more than 50 Afghans between 2010 and 2013.

New evidence, largely unnoticed, revealed last week how the SAS deleted data held on its computers in breach of repeated promises it made to the Royal Military Police (RMP). 

The inquiry heard that SAS soldiers faced most serious allegations of wrongdoing and of perverting the course of justice by attempting to cover it up.

Richard Hermer KC, counsel for Afghan victims, told the inquiry that “the defiance of an unequivocal direction to retain evidence is at best highly suspicious and at worst a patent and criminal attempt to pervert the course of justice in a multiple homicide investigation”.

In response, Oliver Glasgow KC, the Inquiry’s counsel pointedly noted: “That observation is not without foundation”. 

The allegation before the inquiry, Glasgow added, was that the data was “forensically wiped as part of a cover-up to prevent the Royal Military Police from recovering evidence relating to extra-judicial killings.”