WHO KILLED BAHA MUSA?

14-03-2007

It looks like we'll never know who killed Baha Musa, an Iraqi man who died in British custody in Basra in 2003. The last two of seven soldiers was cleared at court martial yesterday, although one is yet to be sentenced after admitting inhumane treatment. Andy Goff muses on the verdicts.

British Army Colonel Jorge Mendonca among others was found not guilty of offences against Iraqi civilian prisoners recently.

The charges were dismissed and yesterday, at the conclusion of the trials, the reasons he was cleared were made public.

Mendonca had asked a Major Royce of the Intelligence Corps if it was OK to place hoods over the heads of prisoners and force them to stand in “stress positions” - don't the ‘H' blocks spring to mind here?

Royce apparently approved these practices on the basis that they had been OK'd by ‘commanders' - one wonders who they were.

Yet both practices are expressly forbidden under army rules - not to mention international law.