Topic: Baha Mousa

Baha Mousa was a 26-year-old Iraqi hotel receptionist who was kicked and beaten to death whilst in British Army custody in Basra in September 2003. The inquiry into his death heard that Mousa was hooded for almost 24 hours during his 36 hours custody of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that he suffered at least 93 injuries prior his death.

On 14 September 2003 Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist, was arrested along with six other men and taken to a British base. Whilst in detention it is claimed that Mousa and the other captives were hooded and severely assaulted by a number of British troops. Two days later Mousa was found dead. A post-mortem examination found that Mousa suffered multiple injuries (at least ninety-three), including fractured ribs and a broken nose, which were "in part" the cause of his death.

Seven members of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment were tried on charges relating to the ill treatment of detainees, including those of war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. On 19 September 2006, Corporal Donald Payne pleaded guilty to a charge of inhumane treatment to persons, making him the first member of the British armed forces to plead guilty to a war crime. He was subsequently jailed for one year and expelled from the army. The BBC reported that the six other soldiers were cleared of any wrongdoing, but the Independent reported that the charges had been dropped, and that the presiding judge, Justice Ronald McKinnon, stated that "none of those soldiers has been charged with any offence, simply because there is no evidence against them as a result of a more or less obvious closing of ranks."