UK troops tortured Iraqi detainees, Inquiry finds

(Press TV) -- British troops have violated international law in Iraqi prisons on numerous occasions through the "banned interrogation methods," a public inquiry reveals.

The yearlong inquiry into the 2003 death of Baha Mousa states that the 26-year-old hotel receptionist died in UK military custody in Basra, southern Iraq in September 2003 after being subjected to humiliating abuse.

Baha Mousa's night shift on the reception desk was coming to an end on September 14, 2003 and his father had just arrived to drive him home. Then, soldiers from the former Queen's Lancashire Regiment raided Basra's Ibn al-Haytham hotel and took Mousa along with six other hotel employees to Battle Group Main camp, known as BG Main. Four days later Baha was dead.

He was said to have been subjected to "conditioning techniques", including being forced to maintain painful "stress positions", hooding and deprivation of sleep and food.

When his father, Daoud Mousa, a stout colonel in the Basra police force, arrived at the British military morgue to identify his son's body he was confronted with a bruised, bloody and badly beaten corpse.

"When they took the cover off his body I could see his nose was broken badly," he said. "There was blood coming from his nose and his mouth. The skin on his wrists had been torn off. The skin on his forehead was torn away and beneath his eyes there was no skin either. On the left side of his chest there were clear blue bruises and also on his abdomen. On his legs I saw bruising from kicking. I couldn't stand it."

Rabinder Singh QC, counsel for Mousa's family and other Iraqis detained with him, has meanwhile said, "This case is not just about beatings or a few bad apples. There is something rotten in the whole barrel."

Singh went on to note, "One of the striking features of the terrible events of BG Main in September 2003 is that the abuse did not take place in a secret location behind closed doors. The temporary detention facility (TDF) was open to the outside. Many people must have seen or heard what was going on. Many seem to have visited the TDF."

"This gives rise to serious questions about the professionalism of the outfit and whether the culture was one of impunity. It also gives rise to serious questions about the capacity of the regiment's members to question and challenge abuse."

Baha's two sons, Hassan, 3, and Hussein, 5, are orphans. Their 22-year-old mother died of cancer six months before Baha.

The British Ministry of Defense has already agreed to pay a total of GBP 3 million (USD 4.8 million) in compensation to Mousa's family and other detainees who have been subjected to abuse.