A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa

Product Information

At around 9.30pm the next day, Keilloh was summoned from his medical post to the detention area because Mousa had "fallen and collapsed". While in the custody of the former Queen's Lancashire Regiment, Mousa was beaten to death. He sustained 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose. Many of the allegations concern physical, sexual and religious abuse during interrogation. The conduct appears systematic, and the MoD has video recordings. It could easily verify any claim and now needs to come clean: I cannot believe that any defence chief would wish to defend physical, sexual or religious humiliation in interrogation.

Gage heard evidence that military and civilian officials tried to downplay the significance of Mousa's death and dissembled when MPs asked about the circumstances surrounding it.June 2010 Adam Ingram, the former armed forces minister, admits he was "not accurate" when he told an MP in June 2004 that Iraqi detainees were not hooded as an interrogation technique.

Several techniques – including subjecting detainees to hooding, stress positions and sleep deprivation – were nonetheless exploited by soldiers of the 1st Battalion Queen’s Lancashire Regiment for what was politely termed “conditioning” – preparing suspects for questioning. Mousa was found to have suffered at least 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose. After a "very short" handover, he took over the medical team of the regiment at their HQ in the former headquarters of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party in war-torn Basra City. He also heard how the Ministry of Defence's top legal advisers failed to seek the advice of Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, who was known to take the view that British troops in Iraq were bound by the Human Rights Act. As trial judge at the Old Bailey, Gage found himself under intense media scrutiny. George was charged with the murder of Dando, a presenter on BBC Crimewatch, who was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, west London, in 1999. The case resulted in George being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001. That conviction was subsequently quashed by the court of appeal in 2007 and George was acquitted after a retrial the following year.On 14 September 2003, Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist, was arrested along with six other men and taken to a British base. While in detention, Mousa and the other captives were hooded, severely beaten, and assaulted by a number of British troops. Two days later, Mousa was found dead. A post-mortem examination found that Mousa suffered at least 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, which were in part the cause of his death. [7] Investigation [ edit ] Praised for being “rigorous and robust”, Gage highlighted the continued use of interrogation techniques that had been banned in 1972 following earlier inquiries into the abuse of suspects interned during Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Video evidence of some of the interrogations conducted by a shadowy military intelligence unit called the Joint Forward Interrogation Team (JFIT) supports allegations that detainees were starved, deprived of sleep, subjected to sensory deprivation and threatened with execution. Former JFIT detainees and their lawyers believe the British military doctors were examining prisoners before interrogation to establish that they would survive the ordeal ahead.