142 Iraqi detainee abuse cases reach High Court

Public Interest Lawyers

PIL, November 6, 2010 Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) are acting for 142 Iraqi civilians who complain that at various times and in different UK facilities during the period March 2003 to December 2008, UK soldiers and interrogators subjected them to torture and to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. All of the cases concern allegations of abuse inside UK military facilities in Iraq.

The Lead Claimant, Ali Zaki Mousa, brings a case on behalf of all the men. It is being heard by a Court of Appeal Judge, Richards LJ, and a High Court Judge, Mr Justice Silber, on 5, 8 and 9 November 2010 at the Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London.

The Baha Mousa Inquiry has concluded its oral hearings and the Report is due in early 2011. A second inquiry into how the UK Armed Forces behaved in Iraq, the Al Sweady Inquiry, is due to start its oral hearings in 2011. The Ali Zaki Mousa case argues that there must now be a single inquiry into the UK’s detention policy in South East Iraq. The alternative is to allow the MoD to argue out each and every case which at the rate it says it can deal with cases one at a time and one a year will take 142 years (assuming that no new cases come forward in the meantime).

The Iraqi victims complain of many practices and techniques that have not been examined at all during the Baha Mousa Inquiry and include:

- Forcednakedness, including keeping Iraqis naked if they did not cooperate withinterrogators;

- Sexual abuses, including rape, forced oral sex, forced adoption of prolonged oral and anal simulated sex positions, soldiers masturbating on Iraqis, female and male soldiers having sex in front of the Iraqis, playing loud, hardcore pornographic movies all night during Ramadan and many other troubling allegations of a sexual nature;

- Foodand water deprivation as a means of "softening-up" Iraqis for interrogation;

- Prolonged solitary confinement;

- Sleep deprivation;

- Mockexecutions;

- "Harshing", including screaming insults and threats into the faces of Iraqis from close range;

- Systematicuse of sensory deprivation, including hoods/double hoods, blacked-out goggles, and earmuffs;

- Threats to rape Iraqis’ wives and daughters in front of them; and

- Abuse of women and children at arrest operations in homes.

Phil Shiner of PIL said:

"This case raises a number of very troubling systemic issues about the practices and techniques used on Iraqis by soldiers and interrogators. Even the MoD now concedes that its previous protestations about a "few bad apples" and "isolated incidents" is patent nonsense. The question for the Court to decide comes down not to whether there should now be a single inquiry into the UK’s detention policy in Iraq, but when it should be set up. The MoD want to kick all of this into the long grass. Our clients are entitled to a proper inquiry into all of these cases now, not in several years time when all the evidence will be lost or forgotten."

Mazin Younis, Advisor for the Iraqi Rabita (League), added:

"Since my first trip to Basra in 2004 to meet a handful of Iraqis claiming to have been abused by British soldiers, the list of claimants has shot up dramatically. The similarities in allegations of abuse that took place between 2003 and 2008, when thousands of British soldiers had served from different units and in many headquarters, are really astonishing. These similarities may reveal a systematic policy of abuse issued by officers high up in the command chain, and may reveal immunity guaranteed to soldiers to mistreat Iraqis the way they liked with no fear of accountability.

At this very moment, more than 60 new cases have flooded in from southern Iraq; we dont know yet what kinds of abuse they will be revealing. Iraqis have been waiting for a long time for their voices to be heard and for justice to be restored. The only way that we can handle the current and future claims of abuse made by Iraqis is through a single inquiry. Iraqis will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of this hearing."

There will be a press conference at 9.45am on Friday 5 November at the front entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice. Those present will include Phil Shiner and Mazin Younis. It has not been possible to arrange for the client himself, Ali Zaki Mousa, to be present but a statement on his behalf will be read out by Mazin Younis.

For further information, please contact:
Phil Shiner on 0121 515 5069 / 07715485 248
Daniel Carey on 07815 089 526
Sam Jacobs on 07762 278234
Paul McNab on 07577 642374
Mazin Younis on 0781118862
www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk/news_details.php?id=20