23/05/2005
Mark Honigsbaum and Richard Norton-Taylor
Lawyers acting for the family of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in the custody of British soldiers in Basra 20 months ago, yesterday welcomed reports that the army is to investigate the role allegedly played by senior officers of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in his death.
Colonel Jorge Mendonca, 41, the regiment's commanding officer at the time of Mousa's detention, is understood to be one of several officers whose names have been passed by the Ministry of Defence to the Army Prosecuting Authority in connection with Mousa's death and the alleged torture of eight other detainees. The MoD's decision has infuriated senior commanding officers in both Col Mendonca's brigade and division, who argue that he should not be made a scapegoat solely because of his position in the chain of command. However, Phil Shiner of the Birmingham-based firm Public Interest Lawyers, who is acting for Mousa's family and the other eight detainees, said senior officers should be included in the investigation. Mousa, the son of an Iraqi colonel, was arrested by the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in Basra on September 13 2003. Two days later, the 26-year-old father of two was found dead in custody after apparently having suffered a brutal beating. A postmortem examination found that his injuries included strangulation marks on his neck, a broken nose and three broken ribs. In a witness statement as part of a high court action brought against the Ministry of Defence last December, one of those arrested, Kifah al-Mutari, described how the detainees were hooded, deprived of sleep and had freezing water poured over them. He said they became victims of "soldiers' games", including a version of kickboxing in which British troops would compete "as to who could kickbox one of us the furthest". On the third night of his detention, Mr al-Mutari said he could hear Mousa, in a separate room, saying he was bleeding from his nose. The last words he heard Mousa say were: "I am dying ... blood ... blood ..." After the hearing, the high court ruled that British troops on foreign operations are bound by the Human Rights Act and that the act covered the prison in which Mousa died. It delivered a stinging rebuke of what it called the "dilatoriness" of the army's investigation and ordered an independent inquiry. But the British government appealed against the decision on a technicality, prompting Mr Shiner to write to the attorney general. Last week, Mr Shiner said: "The evidence I have is that the abuse of the men went on for several weeks. In my opinion senior officers should be included in the inquiry." An MoD spokesman said: "The Army Prosecuting Authority is considering case papers and any decision to prosecute will be announced to the house by the attorney general." Although Col Mendonca could not be reached for comment yesterday, friends were quoted as saying over the weekend that he was "furious, confused and scared" by the claims, which he denies.
SOURCE: The Guardian
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