05 Jun 2007

Today the Attorney General will face new questions about his legal stance on whether stress, hooding and sleep and food deprivation “techniques” banned by the Heath Government in 1972 were authorised for use by British soldiers against Iraqi civilians.

In a letter sent today by the Public Interest Lawyers, the Attorney General is asked whether he advised that the European Convention on Human Rights did not apply to Iraqi civilians held in detention after 2003 and if he was aware of a new policy which allowed the previously banned torture techniques to be used outside of the United Kingdom.

The human rights group Liberty has launched a campaign to investigate the abuse of Iraqi civilians and has intervened in the Law Lords’ Al Skeini case which will determine if human rights laws apply to the British military abroad. Brought by the families of six Iraqi civilians including Baha Mousa, who died after being severely beaten while in UK detention, the case was heard in April and a decision is anticipated this summer.

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said: “Nothing less than Britain’s international reputation is at stake. We deserve to know what advice the military was given so that we can make systemic improvements rather than targeting a few individual soldiers.”

Contact: Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128

Notes to Editors:

For a copy of the 5 June 2007 letter sent to the Attorney General by Phil Shiner on behalf of Public Interest Lawyers contact Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128.

In the R (on the application of Al-Skeini and Others) and the Secretary of State for Defence, the appellants and their stories are as follows:
• Baha Mousa, (digital post-mortem photos of Mr. Mousa are available) aged 26, was arrested during a raid by UK Armed forces at Haitham Hotel, detained and allegedly beaten to death by UK soldiers. He had been taken with eight others to the UK’s Temporary Detention Facility. The individuals were allegedly subjected to prolonged hooding with sandbags, prolonged stress positions such as sitting on an imaginary chair, prolonged sleep deprivation, ritualised abuse through kickboxing games where soldiers apparently competed to kick the detainees further across the room and prolonged beatings including kicking. On 13 March 2007 a military court martial at Camp Bulford found Corporal Payne of the Queen’s Lancashire regiment guilty of inhumane treatment and found not guilty the remaining officers and soldiers charged with various offences relating to the incident.

• Hannan Shmailawi was killed by a sudden burst of machine-gun fire from outside her home as she sat at the dinner table with her family in November 2003.

• Hazim Al-Skeini, aged 23, was shot dead in the street by British troops in August 2003. Al-Skeini’s father said his son left the house to join what he believed to be a tribal funeral, which is associated with gunfire.

• Muhammed Salim, a 45-year old teacher, was shot dead in his brother-in-law’s home in November 2003 when a patrol entered the home on a search and arrest mission.

• Waleed Sayay Mezban, 43 years old, was killed as he drove his minibus home from work in August 2003.

• Raid Al-Musawi, a 29-year old Iraqi police commissioner, was shot and wounded by a British soldier during a power failure and died in hospital nine weeks later.

3. In Al-Skeini v Secretary of State for Defence, the appellants argue that the six Iraqi civilians killed during the occupation of Iraq had their rights breached under Article 2 (the right to life) and/or Article 3 (the prohibition against torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Government is therefore obliged to hold an independent inquiry into their treatment. The High Court and the Court of Appeal found that the Human Rights Act applies in situations where an individual is detained by a British authority, in this case, the military. The House of Lords heard the appeal for six days from 17th to 19th and 23rd to 25th April 2007.

4. Interveners in the case include Liberty, the Aire Centre, Amnesty International, the Association for the Prevention of Torture, the Bar Human Rights Committee, British Irish Rights Watch, Interights, Justice, Kurdish Human Rights Project, the Law Society of England and Wales and the Redress Trust.