[JURIST] As the British Ministry of Defence [official website] continues investigating the deaths of several Iraqi detainees in British military custody [Scotsman report], a military tribunal judge on Thursday found a British soldier not guilty of manslaughter for allegedly forcing a 15-year-old Iraqi to swim across a Basra canal where he drowned. Recently-appointed Vice Judge Advocate General Michael Hunter [profile] did not explain his not guilty ruling to defendant Lance Cpl. James Cooke, 22, of the Irish Guards [official website], an infantry unit of the British Army.

Three other soldiers involved in the incident are still on trial, and have argued that they did not threaten to shoot the Iraqi teenager if he did not swim across the canal, as prosecutors allege. AP has more.