Human rights law 'applies to British troops in Iraq'.
The United Kingdom's highest court, the House of Lords, ruled today that the conduct of British troops in Iraq and other countries is subjected to EU human rights law.
Law lords issued an historic four to one verdict that the UK's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights applied to British forces deployed overseas in the case of an Iraqi man who was tortured to death in their custody four years ago.
“This is a massive breakthrough in my clients’ efforts to secure accountability for deaths and torture in detention,” Human rights lawyer Phil Shiner said, who represented the father of the murder victim Baha Mousa. "Even when Mousa died after being hooded for most of the 36 hours he survived there was huge resistance at the highest levels to stopping hooding because of pressure from the US."
An autopsy into Mousa's death found that the 93 injuries to Baha Mousa had been sustained by multiple soldiers, but only one soldier, Corporal Payne has ever been convicted of the crime.
“This historic ruling means that there can never be a British Guantanamo anywhere in the world,” director of British civil rights group Liberty said. "“British soldiers died in a war fought in the name of human rights. Yet our Government argued that the Human Rights Act had no place in Iraq. This decision means that Government must now face up to its obligations to detainees. Individual soldiers will no longer carry the can for systemic hooding and beating and worse.”
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