Danish court refuses to compensate 18 Iraqis tortured

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Supreme Court of Denmark cancelled on Tuesday a ruling of the Court of Appeal that obliges Copenhagen to compensate 18 Iraqi civilians tortured during Iraq war, in a joint operation between Iraqi security forces and Danish soldiers, according to Al-Arabiya news.

23 Iraqis resorted to the Danish judiciary after they were arrested, tortured and treated inhumanly, during Operation Green Desert in Zubair district of Basra governorate in 2004.

In 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled that Denmark should compensate 18 out of the 23 Iraqis.

But the Supreme Court of Denmark cancelled the decision and ruled that the Danish Ministry of Defense is not obliged to compensate the 18 Iraqis because the Danish forces were not involved in the torture and were not aware of it.

“The Danish forces did not have specific reasons… to believe that Iraqis would be subjected to torture,” the Supreme Court of Denmark mentioned in a statement.

The Court of Appeal had decided that the Danish soldiers failed to prevent the torture, even if they did not take part in it.

The Court of Appeal also held that the Danish forces were aware that the Iraqi prisoners were vulnerable to real threats of torture by the Iraqi security forces, and ruled that Denmark should provide compensations of 30 thousand kroner (around 4300 US dollars) to each of them.