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UK might have misled lawmakers over Iraq torture

British parliamentarians said on Sunday they might have been misled by the government and a senior military figure over the use of banned interrogation techniques by British troops in Iraq.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 15:39 July 27, 2008
  • Gulf News

London: British parliamentarians said on Sunday they might have been misled by the government and a senior military figure over the use of banned interrogation techniques by British troops in Iraq.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights said that soldiers had used "conditioning" techniques such as hooding prisoners and putting them in stress positions despite such methods being prohibited.

An investigation into the death of Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel worker in the southern Iraqi city of Basra who was beaten to death in British custody in 2003, found some soldiers had employed the banned practices.

Last year, British soldier Corporal Donald Payne pleaded guilty to inhumane treatment at a court martial, after which the head of the army General Sir Richard Dannatt said Mousa and others had suffered unlawful treatment.

Earlier this month the Ministry of Defence (MoD) agreed to pay nearly US$6 million in compensation to Mousa's family and other Iraqis beaten and tortured by British troops in 2003.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said there would be a public inquiry into Mousa's death which would also examine the issue raised by the committee.

"We acknowledge that in 2003, some of the conditioning techniques were used on a small number of detainees," Browne said in a statement.

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