Mousa inquiry told Colonel condoned hooding

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Mousa inquiry told Colonel condoned hooding
Commander of soldiers who were detaining Baha Mousa admitted he had condoned practices banned as inhumane 38 years ago


Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk,
Monday 15 February 2010 22.43 GMT

The commander of the regiment whose soldiers were detaining Baha Mousa, an Iraqi civilian, when he died admitted todayhe had condoned practices banned as inhumane 38 years ago.

Colonel Jorge Mendonca also admitted responsibility as commander of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment for the death in 2003 of the 26-year-old Basra hotel receptionist in his soldiers' custody.

Asked whether he was ultimately accountable for Mousa's death, he said: "As the commanding officer of that unit, yes, I do accept that responsibility."

His admission came near the end of nearly six hours of questioning at the Baha Mousa inquiry in London. However, he said he was unaware of any abuse of Mousa and other Iraqi detainees held by his soldiers, that no medical checks were carried out on them, or that there was no log recording what was happening to them at his regiment's unlocked detention centre.

Gerard Elias QC, the inquiry counsel, referred Mendonca to five techniques – wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink – which were "absolutely forbidden" by the British government in 1972.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/15/mousa-inquiry-colonel-condoned-hooding

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[Usrename]

2. I hope the Brits can deal with this better than we can, but maybe not.

I don't trust our courts to hear a case like this, and they don't seem to be having much progress either. The link says that to date only one corporal has been sentenced to one year and he pled guilty to the war crime of inhumane treatement of a prisoner. It's insanity.