British Law Lords say human rights apply to Iraqi civilian deaths

London - The European Convention on Human Rights is applicable to the case of an Iraqi civilian who died in 2003 in the custody of British forces in Basra, the Law Lords, Britain's highest court, ruled Wednesday. The judgement, which could lead to an independent public inquiry, upheld an appeal by the family of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in British Army custody. The Law Lords threw out appeals involving five other Iraqis allegedly shot by British troops, ruling that human-rights laws did not apply to their deaths. By a majority, the Law Lords upheld the findings of the Court of Appeal in December 2005, and the High Court, that Britain's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights applied to the conduct of British troops operating within a foreign territory. Four of the five Law Lords who reviewed the case found that British authorities had 'extra-territorial jurisdiction' concerning the death of Mousa, who was 26 when he died. His lawyers have alleged that Mousa was tortured over a period of 36 hours while detained by British troops. Courts martial have cleared indivual British soldiers involved in the Mousa case. All six deaths occurred at a time when Britain was an occupying power under international law. The other five slain Iraqi civilians were shot and fatally wounded by members of Britain's armed forces during 'patrol' operations. Phil Shiner, the solicitor acting for the family of Mousa, said that the ruling was a 'massive breakthrough' in his clients' efforts to secure accountability for torture and deaths in detention. Human-rights group Liberty called for a full, independent inquiry into all cases where detainees 'suffer inhuman treatment, torture or death' while held by British forces 'anywhere in the world.' 'There could now never be a British Guantanamo,' said Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti. 'The British will never be able to build a prison anywhere in the world and say it is a legal black hole.' © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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BogwartJun 13th, 2007 - 13:13:49

I deeply resent the comment that 'The British could never build the equivalent of Guantanamo'. Has there ever been a suggestion that we would want to?

The people illegally held captive at Gitmo are in a legal black hole which could never be tolerated under British law, and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous and reprehensible.

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kk956Jun 13th, 2007 - 21:00:27

bogwart, I wish I had your faith. A few years ago I'd have thought that a lot of the Terrorism Act 2006 was impossible. And here, unlike in the US, there isn't even a judiciary that can invalidate an act of parliament. I put nothing past the major parties right now --- in terms of capability *or* intent.

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PGTipsJun 14th, 2007 - 06:49:37

Human rights people make me sick. They're quick to hound the British and US troops about torture, yet they are completely silent when British and US troops are tortured by insurgents.

Where is the HR lobby's response to the Al-Qaeda torture manual that was published a month ago? If we describe what the US and British troops do as torture, what can we call this? www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275340,00.html

Another good response to this whole human rights nonsense can be found at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/14/nrights214.xml. This is written by a serving Royal Military Police officer, who has way more 'on the ground' experience than the buffoons in the House of Lords or the HR lobby.

Do I advocate torture? Hell no. Do I advocate tying the hands of our troops and preventing them from doing their jobs? Hell no. Forcing the UK troops to adhere to these 'human rights laws' while their enemy is not bound by such constraints is merely signing the death warrants of our troops.

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