Reply #2: (UK) Wounded troops to get payouts as victims of crime not war

[Barrett808]

Hundreds of British troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are in line for sizeable compensation payments - but only if their attackers are judged to be 'criminals' rather than enemy fighters.

The Ministry of Defence said it was looking at claims from wounded personnel under the Armed Forces Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, which gives pay-outs on a sliding scale up to £500,000 where troops are victims of crimes rather than being hurt on the battlefield.

But the complex scheme looks set to be dogged by bitter controversy and legal wrangling, as soldiers with similar injuries stand to receive wildly varying levels of compensation depending on the precise circumstances in which they were wounded.

A soldier who is shot while trying to control a riot and loses his leg would be in line for compensation, the MOD said, because rioters are classified as criminals.

Yet astonishingly a colleague who is hit by a roadside bomb and also loses a leg would not get the same payout because he is judged to have suffered a deliberate and premeditated attack by enemy insurgents, rather than a 'crime.'

(more)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23377740-details/Wounded+troops+to+get+payouts+as+victims+of+crime+not+war/article.do