PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
PRIVATE CLEGG AND THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (23 January 1995)

That this House notes with dismay the conviction for murder of Private Clegg and the ruling by the courts that the Rules of Engagement, as embodied in the Yellow Card, do not have 'any legal force' in the United Kingdom law; rejects the proposal that lesser charges than murder be made applicable to soldiers who kill while on duty, as that would greatly increase the number of miscarriages of justice; notes that Clegg was deemed to have fired three legal shots on a dark night, believing his comrades to be in danger, not least as a soldier from his company, in a similar incident, had been deliberately run down, swept away on a car bonnet and killed, and that he was convicted as a result of the fourth shot, fired less than a second after the third; believing that no jury would have convicted under such circumstances, calls on the Government to bring about Clegg's speedy release; while recognising that soldiers must obey the law, notes that the Rules of Engagement are the Government's own legal advice to the soldier serving his country in action and that soldiers, such as Clegg, risking their lives, often in the most trying of physical conditions, have to make split-second decisions on the basis of the Yellow Card; and calls on the Government to embody the Rules of Engagement into the criminal law so that charges can never again be brought against soldiers who open fire under circumstances conforming to them.

Sponsored by:
Sir Julian Brazier (Conservative)