LONDON: A British Royal Air Force doctor who refused to return for a tour of duty in Iraq because he believes military action there is illegal will face a court martial, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Lawyers for Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith had argued at a pre-trial hearing that he should not face prosecution for disobeying orders because he believed there was no basis in international law for attacking Iraq.

But after a pre-trial hearing in Aldershot, southern England, Judge-advocate Jack Bayliss disagreed, ruling Wednesday that the orders given to the 37-year-old medic, based at RAF Kinross, northeast Scotland, were lawful.

Kendall-Smith’s belief that the orders were unlawful “might be a point in mitigation but it cannot provide a defence in law since the ‘mens rea’ (intent) of the offence is a deliberate disobedience of an order which the defendant received and understood”, he said.

Bayliss said Britain had full justification under United Nations resolutions to be in Iraq at the time of the charges, which date from June and July last year.—AFP