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LONDON - Britain's Defence Ministry came under fire today for allowing 15 sailors and marines held by Iran for 13 days to sell their stories to the media.
The ministry said it had waived rules barring serving military personnel from selling their stories because of huge public interest in the case. "These are considered to be exceptional circumstances," a ministry spokeswoman said.
Some popular British newspapers pay people for their sensational stories to boost sales. The spokeswoman said the 15 would be able to keep fees which press reports estimated could total as much as 250,000 pounds ($680,700).
The 15 were freed last Thursday after being seized by Iranian forces in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran. Iran said they were detained for entering its waters illegally. Britain said they were in Iraqi waters.
Several of the sailors and marines, particularly the only woman among them, Faye Turney, became well known after they were shown repeatedly on Iranian television during the standoff.
On their return to Britain, the sailors and marines said they were blindfolded, bound, kept in isolation and told they faced up to seven years in jail.
William Hague, foreign affairs spokesman of the opposition Conservative Party, said the decision to let the 15 sell their stories set an important precedent and the Conservatives would raise questions about it when parliament re-opened on April 16.
He said the armed forces would gradually lose dignity and respect if military personnel were allowed to sell their stories whenever they had been in a difficult situation.
Acts of heroism
"There are incredible acts of heroism ... on a weekly, daily basis sometimes in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq but they are not written about," Hague told Sky News.
Hague said the Conservatives would also ask the government to make a statement on the circumstances surrounding the capture of the 15 and what would be done to stop it happening again.
Menzies Campbell, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, predicted a public backlash against the decision to let the 15 sell their stories because in the same week they came home safely, six more British soldiers were killed in Iraq.
Colonel Bob Stewart, former commander of British peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, told the BBC the decision to let them publish was unprecedented and called the capture "hardly one of the most glorious annals of royal naval history".
Max Clifford, Britain's best-known celebrity agent, said letting the sailors and marines tell their story was "purely a propaganda exercise".
"The Ministry of Defence are very keen for them to do it ... The public are more likely to believe them than they are the Ministry of Defence or the politicians," he told the BBC.
London and Tehran are at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear program and British Prime Minister Tony Blair has accused "elements of the Iranian regime" of financing, arming and supporting terrorism in Iraq.
Defending itself in the face of the outcry, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday it had granted permission to ensure the navy and the ministry "had sight" of what the former detainees were going to say.
- REUTERS
