British troops 'tortured and killed Iraqi civilians seized after battle'

by Michael Evans, Defence Editor
February 23, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3419662.ece

The Attorney-General was urged yesterday to call in Scotland Yard to investigate allegations that British troops tortured and killed a number of Iraqi civilians seized after an ambush at a checkpoint in southern Iraq in May 2004.

Two British lawyers, Phil Shiner and Martyn Day, said there was evidence from Iraqi doctors’ certificates, following examination of 20 bodies, that bodies had been mutilated and that there were signs of torture having taken place. They cited two cases where Iraqis had an eye “gouged out” or “pulled out”, and another where a penis had been severed.

The two lawyers, who are acting for five Iraqis who were detained by soldiers and held in a military camp at Abu Naji, provided details of their witness statements for the first time yesterday.

The Iraqis said they were labourers working in the fields who had been “swept up” in a three-hour battle after a British convoy was ambushed by the Shia al-Mahdi army at the Danny Boy checkpoint, near the town of Majar al-Kabir.

They claimed that they were beaten and abused and that they heard screaming throughout the night of May 14 and 15 and shots that they believed were the sounds of Iraqis being tortured and killed.

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Atiyah Sayid Abdelreza, one of the five, who were interviewed in Istanbul, said in his statement: “I never heard anything like that sound before in my life. It shocked me and filled me with such terror.”

Mr Shiner and Mr Day, who have been pursuing a judicial review in the High Court for a public inquiry into the allegations, acknowledged that they did not know for certain whether Iraqi civilians had been tortured and killed at the Abu Naji camp, but that this appeared likely.

Mr Shiner called on Baroness Scotland of Asthal, QC, the Attorney-General, to take the case out of the hands of the military and to put Scotland Yard in charge of a new investigation.

Twenty Iraqis were killed and their bodies were handed over to the Iraqi authorities, following the battle at the checkpoint near the town of Majar al-Kabir.

A ten-month Royal Military Police investigation involving interviews with 150 British personnel and 50 Iraqis concluded that all 20 were killed during the battle, and there was no evidence that another nine who had been detained and held at Abu Naji had been abused. The Iraqis suing the Ministry of Defence claim that some of those killed died at the Abu Naji camp.

The Ministry of Defence has vigorously denied the allegations and said that the 20 Iraqis all died during the Battle of Danny Boy and that the injuries were consistent with battlefield wounds. It denied that any of the bodies had been mutilated.

An official said that during the exchanges with al-Mahdi army insurgents, many types of weaponry were used, from bayonets to Challenger 2 tanks. One of the regiments involved had won nine gallantry awards during its six-month tour of Iraq. The MoD said that the Royal Military Police had carried out a robust investigation.

However, Mr Shiner said that the system of using the Royal Military Police to investigate allegations of criminal acts by British troops had failed spectacularly in the case of Baha Musa, who died in British detention in September 2003. Five members of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (QLR) and two members of the Intelligence Corps were charged in relation to the death, but all were acquitted except for one, Corporal Donald Payne, of the QLR, who pleaded guilty to inhumane treatment of prisoners.

Mr Shiner, who is also representing the family of Mr Musa in a damages case against the MoD, said: “We call on the Attorney-General to intervene [in the Abu Naji case]. She has overall supervisory control of the Army Prosecuting Authority. We require the Attorney-General to take this matter away from the military and put it immediately in the hands of Scotland Yard.”

The MoD said that the Royal Military Police had reopened its inquiry into the Abu Naji allegations but only in reference to new witness evidence that had arisen during the High Court case brought by the Iraqi families.

The BBC One series Panorama, which spent more than a year interviewing former Iraqi prisoners and battlefield survivors, is to broadcast its findings in a programme on Monday

The witness statements

“The soldiers pushed me to the ground and handcuffed my hands behind my back. One soldier punched me repeatedly in the face. The blows were heavy and painful and I was almost knocked unconscious. I was hit hard behind my left ear with a rifle butt and kicked in the back by more than one soldier. This treatment lasted for approximately 15 minutes."

Hussein Jabbari Ali, 28

“[At the Abu Naji camp] I heard the terrible sound of someone being choked or strangled. This sound was really loud and unmistakable. Almost immediately afterwards there were four to five shots fired in the room."

Hussein Fadel Abass, 24

“The soldiers were shouting at me. When they came close I raised my hands in surrender. They circled me and one of the soldiers kicked me with his boot in my back and I fell on my face. Another put his boot on the back of my head and ground my face into the earth. This caused my face to be cut."

Ahmad Jabbar Ahmood, 27

"Whichever way I turned, they would kick me full in the face. This went on for a long time but time itself seemed to stop for me. The blows just went on and on and on. I felt I was surrounded by and in the hands of absolutely merciless men."

Atiyah Sayid Abdelreza, 22

“I sensed that there were shifts of soldiers with different soldiers whacking me if my head fell to one side if I dozed off. I would get a bang to the back of my head."

Mahdi Jassim Abdullah, 21

TORTURE AND BRUTALITY BY BRITISH TROOPS IN IRAQ

British soldiers accused of torturing and abusing Iraqi prisoners who were captured in firefight

By The Daily Mail
31/01/08 "Daily Mail"

-- -- The High Court today lifted a gagging order stopping the media reporting allegations of torture and brutality by British troops in Iraq. Soldiers are said to have captured 31 Iraqis following an ambush in May 2004 before killing 22 and leaving only nine injured survivors after detaining them at military headquarters in Abu Naji.

However reporting restrictions imposed earlier on by the court have now been lifted following a petition by several national newspapers and the BBC. It has been claimed the men were seized by the British Army following a firefight on the road from Amara to Basra, near Majar al-Kabir in south-east Iraq. Iraqi families and survivors are seeking compensation and a ruling at a High Court hearing, due to start in the near future, that the Government is legally obliged to set up an independent inquiry into the incident. Death certificates to go before the court are said to state that corpses of Iraqis rounded up showed signs of "mutilation" and "torture".

Lawyers investigating the allegations say the testimonies of five witnesses to the events "combine to give a harrowing account of what took place". The Ministry of Defence has denied there was evidence of wrongdoing by soldiers, including the deliberate mutilation of corpses.

Lawyers Phil Shiner and Martyn Day of Leigh Day are representing the Iraqis. They travelled out to Istanbul earlier this month to meet with some of the alleged survivors and the other witnesses to the events. Mr Shiner said today: "The testimonies of these five men taken over five days in Istanbul by myself and Martyn contain shocking material and combine to give a harrowing account of what took place. "I have never heard such evidence in nearly 30 years of being a solicitor."

Martyn Day said: "Phil and I are clear that what took place in Majar is of massive consequence not just for the British Army and the British Government but for the British people. "Today is the first step in ensuring what happened in Majar is brought out into the open."

The fresh allegations of brutality by UK forces come after it was announced that no one will be held responsible for the killing of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa who was beaten to death in Army custody five years ago.

The decision was branded a shameful indictment of the way politicians, the military and its prosecuting authority dealt with the tragic case. And now the MoD faces further pressure after it failed to keep secret these new alllegations of abuse by British troops.

The gagging order blocked the naming of any of the Iraqi claimants, or the telling of their stories, until a final decision was taken on whether there will be any criminal prosecutions against any soldiers. The ban was imposed last December by Lord Justice Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Silber, after the Ministry of Defence confirmed the possibility of criminal prosecutions. Lord Justice Thomas said "adverse publicity" arising from the civil High Court case would be "highly undesirable".

But today, in an extraordinary judicial clash of views, another senior judge, Lord Justice Moses - also sitting with Mr Justice Silber - overturned the ban "in its entirety". He ruled there was "ample material" to support the proposition that the proceedings to be brought in the High Court should be "in the public domain", and ample authority "for the good reasons why that should be so".

The MoD had wanted to keep secret the names of the Army regiments allegedly involved. But Lord Justice Moses ruled there was no basis for keeping secret the names of those who were subject to investigation. The possibility of there being any prosecution was "far too remote", said the judge, and there was certainly no statutory prohibition on the publication of names. Mr Justice Silber said: "For the reasons given by (Lord Justice Moses), I agree with him."

The BBC's Panorama programme, which is preparing an item on the Majar incident, welcomed today's ruling. Deputy editor Frank Simmonds said: "Panorama is very pleased with the judgment as it clears the way for a more constructive dialogue with the MoD on matters of clear public interest."

During the hearing, Lord Justice Moses said it was "barmy" that it had taken so long for the military authorities to investigate what had happened at Majar in 2004. He said: "It is not fair on them (the soldiers) as well as on everybody else." Jonathan Swift, appearing for the MoD, said fresh investigations had become necessary as a result of the witness statements made by the Iraqi claimants in the pending High Court hearing. He said he was only seeking to uphold the gagging order in so far as it prohibited the naming of the regiments involved.

The judge said: "It is not the way it works. If you are right then it is one rule for the MoD and another rule for the ordinary citizen." Mr Swift said he was not suggesting there should be different rules for different categories, but a no-names order was necessary in the present case "on a precautionary basis" because possible criminal proceedings could be undermined by publicity. But the judge said: "There is nothing unusual in this case in relation to the disclosure of the identity of someone who is being investigated and where there remains the possibility of future criminal proceedings." There was no basis for an order that there should not be disclosure of those who were subject to investigation.