Major Robert Campbell, 45, said he had been left ‘broken’ after the Ministry of Defence told him and two other soldiers they would be dragged before a judge-led inquiry

A decorated Army major has handed back his service medals after learning that he faces an eighth investigation over the death of an Iraqi teenager 15 years ago.

Major Robert Campbell, 45, said he had been left ‘broken’ after the Ministry of Defence told him and two other soldiers they would be dragged before a judge-led inquiry.

‘It was another nail in the coffin,’ said the bomb disposal expert, who has sent his six service medals back to the Queen. ‘I was disowned by the military and so I sent them back in disgust.’

One of his colleagues is said to have resigned from the Army in fury after being told he faces a public grilling over the incident. Major Campbell, along with his comrades, has been relentlessly investigated – and repeatedly cleared – over the drowning of 19-year-old Said Shabram in May 2003.

They have now been told they will be forced to give evidence in public to the Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI) to satisfy human rights laws. The Daily Mail has campaigned for an end to the witchhunt against troops. This newspaper has revealed how hundreds of innocent soldiers have been dragged through repeated investigations.

Major Campbell still serves in the Royal Engineers despite suffering injuries in Afghanistan. He has waived his right to anonymity and said his 21-year career had been ‘poisoned’ by the probes. ‘This sordid process has broken me,’ he said. ‘I leave the Army in six weeks’ time, with only a pair of hearing aids and a disabled badge for my car.’

Among the medals Major Campbell sent back were Afghan and Iraq campaign medals and a Nato Meritorious Service Medal. He also sent back commendations which he was awarded for his bomb disposal work. Major Campbell added: ‘No other army in the world that I know of treats its soldiers as political fodder like this.’

He and his colleagues were accused of forcing the Iraqi teenager, who was accused of looting, into a river in Basra – a claim vehemently denied by all three. They first faced questions during a three-year investigation by the Royal Military Police that began in 2003. In 2006 the file was passed to the Army Prosecuting Authority and they decided not to take the case further.

The medals handed back by Major Campbell include an Iraq Campaign Medal (left) and a Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal (right)

A Diamond Jubilee Medal was also among the service medals which Major Campbell has returned to the Queen

A Nato Meritorious Service Medal was also returned by Major Campbell following the MoD's decision

The death was then investigated as part of The Aitken Report in 2008, and for reasons unexplained the Provost Martial (Army) then started a new investigation in 2010. Around the same time law firm Leigh Day mounted civil action against the MoD on behalf of the teenager’s family. They were awarded £100,000, although the MoD did not admit liability for the teenager’s death.

In 2014 the taxpayer-funded Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) took on the case after being passed the file by the now-defunct Public Interest Lawyers. Major Campbell said: ‘Ihat came storming into my life in 2015 and made my ability to perform as an officer unworkable. My medication increased exponentially since Ihat turned up and by February 2016 I was no longer fit for service.’

After he was deemed medically unfit to serve and signed off sick, investigators passed the file to the Service Prosecuting Authority.

It decided in December that no charges should be brought and Major Campbell thought his ordeal was finally at an end.

But this month Major Campbell received an email, with a letter attached from the MoD, informing him that he would now be called before Sir George Newman as part of a fresh inquiry. He called the latest investigation, which will cost the taxpayer around £200,000, ‘unspeakably cruel and vindictive’.

The MoD said: ‘The welfare of our personnel is of the utmost importance and we have a legal obligation to ensure the full facts of the alleged incidents are known. The IFI do not conduct criminal investigations of soldiers, cases only take place once the prospect of criminal prosecution is eliminated, and individuals are granted anonymity.’

We tried to save teen from an angry mob, say soldiers

Said Shabram drowned in May 2003 amid claims he and his cousin were forced into the water at gunpoint as troops struggled to quell riots in Basra, southern Iraq

Said Shabram drowned in May 2003 amid claims he and his cousin were forced into the water at gunpoint as troops struggled to quell riots in Basra, southern Iraq.

His cousin, Menem Akaili, claimed that he and Mr Shabram, 19, were approached by a British patrol and led at gunpoint down to a jetty before being forced into the Shatt al-Arab river.

The punishment was known as ‘wetting’ and was said to have been inflicted on local youths suspected of looting to keep control of the city after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

It was claimed that Iraqi bystanders managed to drag Mr Akaili out of the water but his cousin disappeared.

Mr Shabram’s body was later recovered by a diver hired by his father, Radhi.

Sapna Malik, the family’s solicitor at law firm Leigh Day, said in 2011: ‘Wetting was supposed to humiliate those suspected of being petty criminals.

‘Although the MoD denies that there was a policy of wetting to deal with suspected looters around the time of this incident, evidence we have seen suggests otherwise.

‘The tactics employed by the MoD appeared to include throwing or placing suspected looters into either of Basra’s two main waterways.’

The soldiers – all members of 32 Engineer Regiment at the time – have previously insisted that Mr Shabram was pursued into the water by an angry mob and that they actually tried to save his life.