Beaten to death: now 19 British soldiers ‘must be put on trial’

A landmark public inquiry concluded that Baha Mousa, 26, a father of two, died after an “appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence” meted out by members of 1st Battalion The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (1QLR).

Inquiry chairman Sir William Gage said a number of British officers who could have stopped the abuse, including 1QLR’s former commanding officer, Colonel Jorge Mendonca, bore a “heavy responsibility” for the “grave and shameful events”.

He also strongly criticised the “corporate failure” by the Ministry of Defence that led to “conditioning” techniques banned by the UK in 1972 – including hooding and making prisoners stand in painful stress positions – being used by soldiers in Iraq.

The £13 million public inquiry, which published its 1,400-page final report yesterday, condemned the “lack of moral courage to report abuse” within 1QLR, based in Preston.

It named 19 soldiers who assaulted Mr Mousa and nine Iraqis detained with him, and found that many others, including several officers, must have known what was happening.

The damning report said the violence could not be described as a “one-off”, because of evidence that 1QLR troops abused and mistreated Iraqi civilians on other occasions.

Lawyers for Mr Mousa’s family called for the soldiers responsible for his death to face charges.

Seven members of 1QLR, including Col Mendonca, faced allegations relating to the mistreatment of the detainees at a high-profile court martial in 2006-7.

They were all cleared, apart from Corporal Donald Payne, who became the first member of the British armed forces convicted of a war crime, when he pleaded guilty to inhumanely treating civilians. He was acquitted of manslaughter.

The legal team for Mr Mousa’s relatives and the other detainees believe that evidence in the inquiry’s report could form the basis for a new prosecution.

Sapna Malik, from law firm Leigh Day and Co, said: “We now expect that the military and civilian prosecuting authorities of this country will act to ensure that justice is done.”

Mr Mousa, a hotel receptionist, suffered 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, while in the custody of 1QLR in Basra over 36 hours between 14 and 15 September, 2003.

The inquiry concluded that his death was caused by a combination of his weakened physical state – due to the heat, exhaustion, his previous injuries and the hooding and stress positions he was subjected to – and a final struggle with his guards.

It found Payne assaulted Mr Mousa violently in the minutes before he died, punching and possibly kicking him, and using a dangerous restraint method.

Even after Mr Mousa’s death the other detainees continued to suffer abuse, with troops forcing them to dance “like Michael Jackson”, the inquiry found.

The report concluded that Col Mendonca’s failure to prevent his soldiers’ use of conditioning methods was “very significant”.

Sir William accepted the officer’s evidence that he did not know about the abuse of the prisoners in a makeshift detention centre in the middle of 1QLR’s base in Basra.

But he added: “As commanding officer, he ought to have known what was going on in that building long before Baha Mousa died.”

Sir William found that two 1QLR officers – Lieutenant Craig Rodgers and Major Michael Peebles – were aware that Mr Mousa and his fellow detainees were being subjected to serious assaults by more junior soldiers.

The report also singled out 1QLR’s Catholic chaplain, Father Peter Madden, for criticism, finding that he visited the detention centre on the day Mr Mousa died and “must have seen the shocking condition of the detainees”.

Sir William said: “He ought to have intervened immediately, or reported it up the chain of command, but it seems he did not have the courage to do either.”

The General Medical Council confirmed that 1QLR’s senior medical officer, Dr Derek Keilloh, is facing a disciplinary hearing next year after he was criticised over his claim that he saw no injuries on Mr Mousa’s body.

The wide-ranging, two-year public inquiry also heard evidence about the question of why soldiers employed five techniques outlawed by Edward Heath 30 years earlier.

Sir William said by the time of the Iraq invasion in March 2003 knowledge of the ban on the “wholly unacceptable” interrogation methods had largely been lost because of a “corporate failure of the MoD”.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said Mr Mousa’s death was “deplorable, shocking and shameful” and revealed he had asked the head of the army, General Sir Peter Wall, to consider what action can be taken against serving soldiers criticised in the report.