Lawyers claim British government approved systematic policy of torture in Iraq

By Paul Mitchell
22 June 2007
Lawyers are claiming that the British government approved a systematic policy of torture of detainees in Iraq.
The claim follows a ruling on June 13 by the Law Lords in the House of Lords—the highest court in Britain—in the Al-Skeini and others v Secretary of State for Defence case. The case was brought by the families of six Iraqi civilians who died in British-occupied Basra in 2003. One of the dead, Baha Mousa, died in British custody while UK soldiers on patrol shot the other five.
Mousa, a 26-year-old receptionist, was detained and allegedly tortured along with others by soldiers in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment at the UK’s Temporary Detention Facility. This is said to have involved hooding with sandbags, keeping stress positions for long periods, sleep deprivation and being subjected to kickboxing “games,” where soldiers competed to see how far they could be kicked.
Photographs and records show Mousa suffered 93 injuries, including four broken ribs, a fractured nose, smashed wrists and a ligature around his neck. According to one witness, “I heard Baha Mousa screaming. I was still hooded but it sounded like he was in another room. I heard him scream: ‘Please help me, blood is coming out, please help me, I am going to die.’ The last thing I heard him say was: ‘My nose broke.’ After this there was silence.”
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