CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed a Ministry of Defence (MoD) decision to drop plans to introduce a five-year limit on prosecutions for torture as part of a new law, but they warned that more changes are needed. 

The MoD confirmed this week that torture, genocide and war crimes would be excluded from a “presumption against prosecution” of British soldiers proposed in the Overseas Operations Bill. 

The concession follows months of campaigning by human-rights groups, which warned that such measures would amount to the “decriminalisation of torture,” and a House of Lords vote last week to exclude the crimes.

Freedom from Torture described the changes today as an “important moment for torture survivors.” 

Director of policy and advocacy Steve Crawshaw said: “It is astonishing that our government could ever have come this close to decriminalising torture, even while denying that it was doing so.”

Mr Crawshaw thanked people who opposed the proposals, which, he said, “paved the way for what seemed an impossible change.”

But Symon Hill from the Peace Pledge Union warned that there are still problems with the amended legislation. 

“It will still involve presumption against prosecution for all sorts of alleged crimes — for example, ill treatment of detainees does not always reach the legal definition of torture, but is, nonetheless, an appalling crime,” he said. 

Mr Hill urged Labour to vote against the legislation when it returns to the Commons. 

Reprieve director of advocacy Dan Dolan said it was vital that the amended legislation “leaves no doubt that the UK will prosecute serious human-rights abuses using the full force of the law, including cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The government’s announcement on Tuesday came as veterans minister Johnny Mercer resigned over a lack of progress on legislation to protect British veterans who served in the Northern Ireland Troubles.