British troops holding prisoners overseas are bound by the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998), the House of Lords has ruled, in a case being hailed as historic by civil rights campaigners.
In R (on the application of Al-Skeini) v Secretary of State for Defence—which arose from complaints against the UK about the deaths of six Iraqi civilians—the Law Lords ruled by a four to one majority that HRA 1998 applied overseas, including detention centres over which British troops had “effective control”.
The case was brought after Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, died while in British custody in 2003. He was allegedly tortured for over 36 hours while detained by British troops in Basra. A post-mortem examination revealed 93 separate injuries on his body.
The Law Lords ruled that Mousa’s family is entitled to an independent, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. The government is likely to be forced to conduct an independent inquiry.
Although welcoming this aspect of the ruling, a spokesperson for Amnesty International says the group regrets that the Law Lords threw out the appeals of the other five Iraqis who were allegedly shot by British troops, ruling that HRA 1998 did not apply to their deaths.
Phil Shiner, the solicitor acting for Mousa’s family, called the ruling a “massive breakthrough” in his clients’ “efforts to secure accountability for deaths and torture in detention”. He now plans to go for “huge exemplary damages” for about 20 other Iraqi families with allegations of mistreatment by British soldiers.
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith says: “It is of the greatest importance that detainees in British custody are not mistreated by our armed forces in any way.”
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