The High Court today lifted a restraining order on The Times and other newspapers which had prevented reporting of allegations that British troops took part in the killing of 22 Iraqis..

The families of the 22 Iraqis and nine others who were allegedly mistreated during the same incident near al-Amarah, southeast Iraq, on May 14, 2004, have been seeking compensation and an independent inquiry through the High Court.

The Ministry of Defence has denied there was any wrongdoing by soldiers and has rejected further allegations that the bodies of the dead Iraqis had been mutilated.

However, the MoD successfully applied for a gagging order from the High Court in December to stop reporting of the allegations until such time as a final decision had been taken on whether to pursue a criminal prosecution of any of the soldiers.

Yesterday, after an application from The Times, The Guardian and the BBC, Lord Justice Moses overturned the ban on reporting “in its entirety”.

He said there was no basis for keeping secret the names of those units which were the subject of an MoD investigation. The possibility of a criminal prosecution was “far too remote”, he said, and there was no statutory prohibition on the publication of names.

Lord Justice Moses said there was “ample material” to support the proposition that the proceedings to be brought in the High Court - by the Iraqi families - should be in the public domain.

In the ruling in December, Lord Justice Thomas had said that adverse publicity arising from the civil High Court case would be “highly undesirable”.

The lawyers acting for the Iraqi families said they had been to Istanbul to meet with five survivors of the incident. Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers said: “The testimonies of these five men contain shocking material and combine to give a harrowing account of what took place.”

The alleged incident is said to have taken place after British soldiers had been ambushed on the road from al-Amarah to Basra, close to the town of Majar. It has been reported that 31 Iraqis were taken into custody.

The families allege that 22 of the detainees died and that the nine survivors showed evidence of physical abuse. The allegation that the bodies of the 22 dead had been mutilated has been rigorously dismissed by the MoD. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has stated that all the injuries on the bodies were consistent with battlefield wounds.

Martyn Day, a solicitor of Leigh Day and Co, who accompanied Mr Shiner on the trip to Istanbul, said: “We are clear that what took place in Majar is of massive consequence not just for the British Army and the British Government but for the British people. Today is the first step in ensuring what happened in Majar is brought out into the open.”

Times Recommends

• Fish and chip shops ‘selling cobbler as cod’
• T in the Park festival at Kinross
• Body Watch