Iraqis lose bid for torture claims inquiry
A group of Iraqi civilians today lost their British High Court bid for a fresh public inquiry into allegations of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment by UK soldiers and interrogators in Iraq.
Two judges upheld Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s refusal to order an immediate, wide-ranging investigation into whether there was systemic abuse, as opposed to ill treatment by “a few bad apples”.
More than 200 Iraqis complain their ill treatment occurred between March 2003 and December 2008 in British-controlled detention facilities in Iraq in the aftermath of the invasion.
Ali Zaki Mousa, from Basra, the lead claimant, alleges he endured months of beatings and other abuse in the custody of British soldiers in 2006-07.