'Mousa's human rights breached'

The Government is to admit breaching the human rights of Baha Mousa who died while in British custody.

The announcement by Defence Secretary Des Browne comes more than four years after Mr Mousa's death in the city of Basra in Iraq.

The Ministry of Defence will also admit breaching the rights of eight other Iraqi men who have brought a civil case in the British courts, Mr Browne told MPs.

The decision opens the door to unlimited compensation pay-outs to his family, and to the eight men.

Solicitor Phil Shiner, who is acting for all nine claimants, said: "My clients are bitterly disappointed, but not surprised, that the Government has not had the integrity to hold the independent inquiry required into the UK's detention policy in Iraq."

"That means that we will have to force an inquiry out of the Government in the High Court now that the House of Lords have ruled that the Human Rights Act did apply and the Government have admitted that UK forces did breach the human rights of Mousa and his eight colleagues. This makes no political sense at all."

The eight other Iraqis involved in the claim are Mohammed Dharir Abdulah, Maitham Mohammed Ameen Challab Al-Waz, Satar Shukri Abdullah, Joad Kadhim Jamal Al-Faeaz, Dharir Abdullah Ali Al-Mansori, Radif Tahir Muslem Alhawan, Baha Hashim Mohammed and Ahmed Taha Mosah.

In a written statement, Mr Browne said that in relation to the claim by Mr Mousa's family, the Government would admit "substantive breaches" of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights which protect the right to life and prohibit torture.

Mr Mousa, 26, a hotel receptionist in Basra, was detained under suspicion of being an insurgent.

Seven members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), which is now the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, faced the most expensive court martial in British history over the case, but all were eventually acquitted.

The case took more than three years of investigation and cost more than £20 million.

One soldier, Corporal Donald Payne, 35, became the first British serviceman to admit a war crime, that of treating Iraqi prisoners inhumanely. He was jailed for a year.

Armed forces minister Bob Ainsworth said "acts of abuse" had been carried out by a "very small minority" of British troops.

"I deeply regret the actions of a very small number of troops and I offer my sincere apologies and sympathy to the family of Baha Mousa and the other eight Iraqi detainees," he said.

"All but a handful of the over 120,000 British troops who have served in Iraq have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment.

"But this does not excuse that during 2003 and 2004 a very small minority committed acts of abuse and we condemn their actions. "

He added: "The Army has done a great deal since these cases to improve procedures and training.

"But we are not complacent and continue to demand the very highest standards of conduct from all our troops."

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