Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

LONDON, 24 May 2004 — British troops in Iraq systematically beat and tortured a group of prisoners in the presence of an officer, contradicting claims that any abuses were caused by rogue soldiers, a report said yesterday.

The Independent yesterday published grisly testimony from five Iraqis arrested in September last year, given to British investigators probing the death of another man who was detained at the same time.

According to the newspaper, the soldiers who conducted the torture in the southern Iraqi city of Basra came from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, a unit previously connected to alleged abuses.

Misdeeds allegedly committed by British troops in Iraq have been far less widespread than those carried out by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, but have nonetheless severely shaken the armed forces.

The men’s testimony said the Iraqis were arrested in a raid at a hotel in Basra during which one of the men sought by British troops, the establishment’s co-owner, managed to escape.

The soldiers wanted to know where he had gone and tortured the detainees when they said they did not know, according to their statements, obtained by the newspaper. These interrogations were overseen by an officer from the regiment, the paper added.

Bahaa Hashim Mohammed, a 26-year-old laborer said that the soldiers “threatened me with severe torture if I did not talk”.

Afterward, “soldiers took it in turns beating us with their hands and boots as well as an iron bar”, he said. The man reported suffering damaged kidneys, broken ribs, a hernia, long-term breathing problems and serious scarring.

“One soldier punched me and broke three of my teeth. Another punched me in my eye and affected my eyesight,” said hotel worker Jawad Kadhim Chamil, aged 45.

A third, named as Ahmad Taha Mousa Al-Moutairi, said he was hooded and then “tortured for three days with no sleep or food” after saying he did not know where the suspect was.

Among the detained men was 27-year-old hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, whose subsequent death has been investigated by British military police.

“On the second day they took Baha Mousa to the bathroom,” said another prisoner, Sattar Shukri Abdulla. I used to hear him screaming. The last thing I hear from him was: ‘I am dying, blood’,” he said.

According to the Independent on Sunday, up to six Queen’s Lancashire Regiment soldiers face prosecution for allegedly beating Mousa to death.

On Friday, Britain’s top government legal officer announced that the country’s state prosecution service was looking into possible civilian criminal charges against one British soldier who served in Iraq. No details have been given as to what alleged crime is being looked into, but it is thought likely to relate to the case of Mousa.