Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Australian SAS implicated in illegal detention

Updated at 4:44 pm on 9 February 2012

A US military document obtained by a British newspaper says Australia's SAS played a key role in the potentially illegal detention of prisoners of war at a secret Iraqi prison.

The Guardian says an SAS team manning a roadblock arrested and detained a group of 64 men during a sweep for ''high-value'' members of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The paper says the men were listed as being detained by US personnel because a single American soldier was attached to the SAS unit manning the roadblock.

It says one of the men later died in an RAF helicopter, allegedly beat 3_news.4_web_news.air

en to death by airmen while en route to a secret location.

However, the Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the Defence Department had advised him the allegations were ''baseless''.

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