Britain hands custody of two Iraqis over to Iraq, against advice of the European Court of Human Rights

1/1/2009: The New York Times reports that two Iraqis have been turned over to Iraqi authorities, in defiance of the European Court of Human Rights. The two men. Faisal al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi, are accused of killing British soldiers in the first days of the Iraq war. They were arrested in 2003, and the case was referred to Iraqis for prosecution in late 2005.  The men have aruged that they should not be tried in Iraq, arguing that they could be tortured or face the death penalty, but a British court ruled that the transfer was lawful. The European Court of Human rights then asked Britain to retain cusdoty of the men pending appeal, but Britain took the position that it lost legal authority to hold the men on January 1, 2009, when the UN mandate expired.