Chiefs pledge action after Judge's rebuke; Senior officials speak of their 'sincere regret'.

Byline: John Ashton 

THE Treasury Solicitor and the head of the Royal Military Police both stepped into a High Court witness box yesterday and spoke of their "profound and deep regret" over the handling of a case in which British troops are accused of mutilating and murdering Iraqi civilians.

Both announced top level reviews into the way Government departments release documents to the courts following criticism from irate judges.

Six Iraqis are seeking an independent inquiry into allegations that 20 other Iraqis were taken prisoner, interrogated and killed after a major gun battle near Basra, Iraq, in May 2004.

Their lawyers argue that the High Court should order a fresh inquiry because Royal Military Police (RMP) investigations into the accusations were flawed and inadequate.

Disclosure of documents relating to the RMP investigations, which concluded British soldiers had done nothing wrong and the Iraqis had died on the battlefield, are crucial to the case.

But on Thursday Lord Justice Scott Baker said the late release of documents held by the RMP to the court and the Iraqi legal team had thrown the hearing into confusion.

He condemned it as a "totally appalling state of affairs".

In an unprecedented move, he summoned senior figures to court to explain what had gone wrong. Yesterday,

Treasury Solicitor Paul Jenkins spoke of his "profound regret" over the "inadequate way" disclosure had been handled.

He told the court he had now ordered an extended review into national security cases "to produce clear guidance on how disclosure should be handled in such complex cases".

He told Lord Justice Scott Baker, Mr Justice Silber and Mr Justice Sweeney: "I am immediately writing to all permanent heads of Government departments drawing their attention to this case, reminding them of the rigorous nature and extent of our duties of disclosure and of the profound importance of those duties." The Provost Marshal of the Royal Military Police Brigadier Eddie Forster-Knight expressed deep regret and offered the court his "unreserved apology" for "human errors and inadequate process".