UK soldiers face probe over chopping off fingers of Taliban member's corpse

London, Dec 12(ANI): UK Royal Military Police is probing the incident in which soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders allegedly chopped off the fingers of a dead Taliban fighter in Helmand, Afghanistan

The Taliban operative was killed during an Apache helicopter missile raid.

"We can confirm that the RMP Special Investigations Branch is in the process of referring three serving individuals to the Director of Service Prosecutions for a decision on whether to prosecute. It is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further," The Telegraph quoted a Ministry of Defence spokesperson, as saying. lieutenant is one of three prime suspects referred to the Director of Service Prosecutions for the probe.

He, a private soldier and his captain were believed to be trying to take fingerprints of the dead soldier for identification.

But the sqauddie was reportedly instructed to chop off his fingers off for a later investigation when the trio were caught using a biometrics camera to take fingerprints.

Under the Geneva Convention, mutilating an enemy's dead body constitutes a war crime and culprits can be imprisoned for upto 30 years for the offence. (ANI)