MPs pour exiger l'enquête dans l'abus des prisonniers en Irak

Par Andrew Johnson

Un comité influent de MPs se réunit demain pour décider de tenir une pleine enquête dans si le bureau ou le mod de l'Attorney General a donné à des soldats le feu vert pour maltraiter des détenus en Irak.

Le comité choisi du joint du parlement des droits de l'homme a demandé le mardi passé, seigneur Goldsmith, Attorney General sortant, s'il a donné le signal de départ pour des techniques de torture employées par les soldats britanniques sur les prisonniers irakiens.

Baha Mousa, an innocent hotel worker, was beaten to death in military custody in 2003, despite warnings that the techniques breached the Geneva Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

Lord Goldsmith denied any knowledge of the torture until after Mr Mousa, 26, died. He also denied having any hand in, or knowledge of, an exchange of emails between Rachel Quick, a legal adviser to the armed forces’ Permanent Joint Headquarters, and Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the Army’s legal chief in Basra.

Lt-Col Mercer had seen about 40 hooded prisoners kneeling in the hot sun with their hands cuffed behind their backs in March 2003, six months before Baha Mousa died. He considered what he saw illegal and told his superiors. He got an email from Ms Quick saying the Human Rights Act did not apply in Iraq and referred to advice given by the Attorney General. But Lord Goldsmith denied this, saying he had always believed the Human Rights Act did apply and called for a full inquiry, which the committee will consider.

In April 2003, the Red Cross made representations to Britain about its treatment of detainees in Iraq. Then Major-General Robin Brims, commander of the UK ground forces in Iraq, ordered hooding to be stop-ped. But hooding and subjecting prisoners to stress continued. Iraqis held with Mr Mousa said that torture techniques including sleep deprivation, food deprivation and noise were applied. These were banned by the government in 1972.

Mr Mousa’s father and nine former detainees are to sue the MoD after the Law Lords ruled that the Human Rights Act applies to areas abroad under British occupation, paving the way for the legal challenge by human rights solicitor Phil Shiner, of Birmingham’s Public Interest Lawyers.

Mr Shiner is seeking a judicial review in an effort to secure the release of documents referred to during the court martial of seven soldiers, which resulted in six acquittals and one soldier being jailed for a year.

He said: “Exactly what did Goldsmith advise at the time as to whether the higher standards should be applied in detention facilities or not? When Lt-Col Mercer blew the whistle, was he ever told of this, and if not, why not?

“It is not good enough for [Lord Goldsmith] to blithely tell us that although he accepts these banned techniques were reintroduced as a matter of policy - and Iraqis died as a result - it is nothing to do with him. I for one do not accept that.”

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