High Court to Hear Claims of Unlawful Killing By Soldiers

The high court, in a test case with widespread implications for British soldiers, will next week hear claims that they acted unlawfully by killing innocent Iraqis in a series of incidents in Basra over the past year.

This was agreed last night after lawyers acting for the families of the victims lodged 12 witness statements - with more to come - describing circumstances in which Iraqis died, allegedly at the hands of British troops.

"The UK government must make those responsible accountable for their actions," said Phil Shiner, of the Birmingham-based firm Public Interest Lawyers.

"Accountability includes accepting these killings were unlawful and the establishment of a fully independent inquiry to establish the cause of the deaths."

He said he was also seeking "proper damages" for the families of the victims who, in some cases, have received ex gratia payments of £500-£1,000 from the Ministry of Defence.

The MoD has not accepted legal liability for any of the deaths.

The ministry says the Human Rights Act does not apply to British troops in Iraq because Iraqis themselves are not covered by it and because southern Iraq is not under British jurisdiction.

The families' lawyers argue that the cases do come within the act since Britain effectively controls southern Iraq.

"As far as human rights go the killings may as well have taken place in Barnsley as in Basra," said Mr Shiner.

"You just cannot allow innocent civilians to be killed without an inquiry to find out what went wrong."

He added: "We pride ourselves in our respect for human rights, for democracy and for the rule of law, but in these cases and others we show contempt for those principles and therefore give succour to our enemies."

Without an independent inquiry, Iraqi families had no hope at all of justice or of closure and the British public "will never know what has gone wrong", he said.

Mr Shiner described the stories as distressing and in some instances disgusting.

The allegations include what he described as "a man beaten to death in custody, another beaten in custody and made to swim a river and drowned because of his injuries, a woman shot in the head while eating her supper in her home with her family, [and] another man shot dead while he prepared for morning prayers".

Mazin Younis, a case officer of the law firm, who recently visited Basra, alleged that one Iraqi, who is still alive, was subjected to continuous torture after being arrested and interrogated about the whereabouts of a suspect.

He said there were alleged instances when interrogation suspects were hooded and forced to hold their hands up in front of them or face a severe beating.

Mr Shiner said while up to now his firm had worked on the cases for nothing, it was "inconceivable" such a case should not be eligible for legal aid.

Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, told the Commons on Tuesday that of 33 investigations into civilian death, injury or ill-treatment involving British troops, 15 of the 21 completed had found there was no case to answer, while possible action was being considered in six cases.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said yesterday that British troops had been given detailed instructions on the humane treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war.

Soldiers had been handed memos setting out their obligations on the treatment of captured Iraqis and "all possible steps" had been taken to ensure that troops were briefed on their obligations, he told the Commons foreign affairs committee.

Cases notified to the high court to back up claims of unlawful killing

Baha Mousa, 26, hotel receptionist, was allegedly beaten to death last September by members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment - the regiment at the centre of the disputed photographs published by the Daily Mirror. Mousa's father, Daoud, a colonel in the Basra police force, told the Guardian that when he arrived at the British military morgue to identify his son's body he was confronted with a bruised, bloodied and badly beaten corpse.

In August last year Hazim Jum'aa Gatteh was attending a funeral ceremony. According to his brother's witness statement, Hazim was "in the street walking towards the house about 10 metres from me when he was fired upon by British soldiers ... there were bullets flying, with shrapnel all over the place". Lieutenant-Colonel Ciaran Griffin, commander of the 1st Battalion, the King's Regiment, wrote to the family's tribe saying "the night was very dark as there was no electricity for street lighting". Hazim "appeared to be armed and a direct threat to their lives, so [the army patrol] opened fire".

Waleed Fayayi Muzban died in August last year after his people carrier vehicle was hit by a barrage of bullets allegedly fired by British troops. The vehicle is crucial evidence but has been impounded by the army, according to the family's lawyer, Phil Shiner. "He was moving away from their position, and the bullets are in the rear," Mr Shiner said yesterday.

Ahmad Kareem Ali, 17, was arrested and allegedly beaten by British troops last May. The soldiers allegedly dropped him by a river bank and told him to swim across. "We reached the deepest point but Ahmad couldn't swim. He sank and I couldn't find him," said his friend, Ayad Salim Hanoon.

Jaafer Hashim Majeed, 13, was playing in a Basra street last year when an unexploded cluster bomb went off. He was dead on arrival at hospital.

Muhammad Abdul Ridha Salim went to visit his brother-in-law on November 5. British troops allegedly broke down the door, and a soldier is said to have shot Salim in the stomach. Salim died later in hospital.