Dutch soldiers did not torture Iraqi prisoners in early 2003 but did make mistakes during the interrogation process, according to two official reports published on Monday.

The claims that military intelligence (MIVD) officers tortured Iraqi prisoners were made in the Volkskrant newspaper last year.
The reports said while that the use of loud noise, throwing water at prisoners and making them wear blanked-out ski goggles was outside the military intelligence service’s authority, it could not be considered torture.
Torture was defined as deliberately inflicting severe pain or suffering.
Nevertheless, the way in which prisoners were treated was not in line with agreements on dealing with prisoners of war, the reports said.
According to the parliamentary committee headed up by former MP Koos van den Berg, in just one case, that of a Saudi prisoner, could the treatment be described as humiliating and a breach of human rights.
Van den Berg was also unable to say if an electric cattle prod had been used during interrogations in Iraq, as also claimed in the media.
The second report was published by the supervisory board of the MIVD. ‘There was no torture, no abuse and no criminal offence committed,’ that report concluded.
Defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop said soldiers who had been accused of torture could now ‘look everyone straight in the eye’. The reputation of the Dutch armed services had now been restored, he said.