Hold on Iraqi suspects' handover

Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth

Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth were killed in Iraq

The European Court of Human Rights has put an "eleventh hour" freeze on the transfer of two Iraqis from UK hands to Iraqi authorities for a murder trial.

Faisal Al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi, held in Basra, hours earlier lost their appeal against transferral because they said they would face execution.

The new injunction means another appeal is needed before their fate is decided.

The two men are accused of murdering Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp in Iraq in March 2003.

In October 2006 a coroner ruled that the two men were unlawfully killed by Iraqi military intelligence.

The two soldiers were ambushed by militia, taken to an Iraqi military compound and shot.

Earlier the Court of Appeal judges dismissed claims that Mr Al-Saadoon and Mr Mufdhi's human rights would be infringed by being handed over to the Iraqi authorities to stand trial.

'Seriously troubled'

But Phil Shiner of Public Interest lawyers, a civil rights campaigning group opposing the transfer, said: "The European Court of Human Rights has today prevented, at the eleventh hour, the transfer of Mr Al-Saadoon and Mr Mufdhi to the Iraqi authorities to face a possible death sentence.

"The European Court's actions mean that a further appeal of this important case is now possible in 2009."

Lawyers for the two accused had argued that allowing them to stand trial in Iraq would violate both the European Convention on Human Rights and the 1998 Human Rights Act.

But the three appeal judges ruled that after midnight on Wednesday, when the UN mandate for British forces in Iraq expires, Iraqi police could go to the British compound in Basra and remove the prisoners.

Before their case reached the Court of Appeal it was rejected by two High Court judges who ruled they could be tried in Iraq, but were "seriously troubled" due to the risk of execution.

The Ministry of Defence said Iraq's government had made assurances the men would be treated humanely.