Legal win may pave way for public inquiry into British Army ‘torture’

By JOHN ASTON
Published on Wednesday 23 November 2011 12:05

MORE than 100 Iraqi civilians have won a landmark Court of Appeal battle in their bid for a fresh public inquiry into allegations of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment made against British soldiers and interrogators.

The group appealed against a High Court decision upholding the government’s refusal to order an immediate, wide-ranging investigation into whether there was systemic abuse, as opposed to ill treatment by “a few bad apples”.

Some 128 Iraqis complain that ill treatment occurred between March 2003 and December 2008 in British-controlled detention facilities in the aftermath of the invasion of the country. The High Court ruled last December that the inquiry being sought was unnecessary because the government had set up a team, the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), to investigate the allegations of abuse.

Yesterday, three appeal judges ruled that IHAT “lacks independence” and ordered the Defence Secretary to reconsider. They also found other inquiries failed to meet the needs of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It was a dramatic victory for Ali Zaki Mousa, from Basra, the lead claimant, who alleges he endured months of beatings and other abuse in the custody of British soldiers in 2006-07.

Lord Justice Kay, sitting with Lord Justice Sullivan and Lord Justice Pitchford, said that under the IHAT arrangements, members of the Provost Branch of the Army, which includes the Royal Military Police, were investigating allegations “which necessarily include the possibility of culpable acts or omissions on the part of Provost Branch members”.

Later a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We note that the Court of Appeal has not ordered a public inquiry but has asked the Defence Secretary to reconsider how to meet the investigative obligations. We will examine the judgment very carefully and consider next steps.”

The Iraqi claimants’ solicitor Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), accused the Ministry of Defence of “deploying every dirty trick in the book” to avoid accountability.

The government had accepted throughout that the Iraqis raised “arguable” claims of having suffered torture and inhumane treatment – and an “arguable” claim that the abuse was systemic, said PIL.

After the ruling Mr Mousa said the judgment had restored Iraqi “confidence in the British people”. He said: “I am delighted with the victory because I always believed that the Royal Military Police would be biased in its investigations of the soldiers. It is part of the Army.

“When we suffered a lot under the British Army and witnessed a catalogue of abuses, we had the impression that that is what Britain is. But thanks to the efforts of our lawyers and the victories in the courts this has changed our impression.

“We can see there are the actions of the British soldiers and that is one thing; then there is British society and that is something else. It has restored our confidence.”

Redress, a London-based NGO which helps victims of torture worldwide, was one of the interveners in the case and said the government would now have to decide how to comply with the need for an inquiry “which is independent, effective and reasonably prompt”.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “Yet again victims of torture look to our open and independent court system for answers and hope that others won’t have to suffer in the future.”