CANBERRA, Australia, Oct 21 (AP/UNB) — Australia's attorney general says he will tell Britain that two Australian soldiers who were executed more than a century ago for war crimes in South Africa had likely been denied fair trials under the British military justice system.

The government's intervention comes after the British government rejected in June a petition to pardon Lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock, who in 1902 became the only Australian soldiers ever executed for war crimes. They had admitted to shooting 12 prisoners during the Boer War.

Attorney General Robert McClelland told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday that he would write to the British government outlining alleged defects in the court martial system that would make the convictions void.